Australian Stocks: What Happened Today?

ASX Top Gainers & Losers plus Market Snapshot – 15 April 2014

Gold drops over $17 in 48 hours, all international bourses plus the Aussie 200 index bounce back and the RBA minutes suggest rates will remain low for the foreseeable future.

What are traders talking about today? 

• S&P/ASX200 gained 29.3 points or + 0.54% on volume of $3.1 billion, closing ­­at 5388.2.
• Gold has pulled back over $US17 per ounce, from $1,331.1 to $1,314 within the last 48 hours with the last hour generating plenty of short selling activity.
• Reporting season in the US will be ramping up tonight so expect some volatility across the US indices and be mindful of the results coming out from the major companies.
• Nickel recently hit the highest level in 14 months due to possible tougher sanctions on Russia, given its recent actions against the Ukraine.
• Aussie Dollar has begun showing some early weakness, popping below the 94 cent mark, with support around 0.9350 crucial if the recent gains are to hold.
• Brent Crude Oil jumped 1.5 per cent Monday night, pushing it back up to near the top of resistance, potentially attracting a number of short sellers at these higher levels.
• Copper appears to be showing some signs of weakness, potentially breaking recent support levels around the 3.03 per pound level and will be one to watch over the next few days.

Economic news

• A number of local miners reported their production reports including Rio Tinto (RIO:ASX) and Oz Minerals (OZL:ASX). Rio Tinto’s Iron Ore production has fallen short of many analysts’ expectations but their Copper production results performed better. Oz Minerals on the other hand had steady Copper production figures whilst their Gold production came in softer than expected.
• The Reserve Bank of Australia released their board minutes today confirming that rates are to stay low for the time being until there is further evidence that Aussie economy is back on track.
• China’s money supply data figures came out indicating a drop in money supply for the month of March. Loan data came in stronger than expected.
• Over the in US we’ll see their CPI figures due out tonight around 11:30pm AEST.

Australian sector watch

Looking over the charts

• After a very volatile, yet positive trading session across the European and US markets our market did manage a slight bounce back to climb back above the 5400 level, but was unable to sustain the move, pulling back in the last few hours of trading.
• Currently the Aussie 200 index is sitting in ‘no man’s land’, chopping around the 5360-5410 level and is stuck in a broader consolidation pattern between 5270 and 5500.
• The stochastics indicator has started to edge closer to the oversold zone and the current low appears to be getting higher, at least at this stage, so short term traders will likely be looking for a level of support and getting ready to position themselves for some long trades.
• As recent highs just got higher, we cannot escape the fact that our market is still in a short, medium and long term uptrend, although the pace at which the trend is evolving is like watching paint dry.

ASX top 200 stock analysis

33% of stocks are showing oversold levels, 9% are showing overbought levels and 56% of stocks are currently above their long term moving average as of close of trading today. View the image below to better understand overbought and oversold levels.

S&P/ASX 200 Gainers and Losers

Top 5 gainers:

• MFG      MAGELLAN FINANCIAL GROUP +6.15%
• PNA       PANAUST +6.01%
• PDN       PALADIN ENERGY +4.49%
• BRG       BREVILLE GROUP +3.83%
• IGO        INDEPENDENCE GROUP NL +3.77%

Top 5 Losers:

• MTU      M2 GROUP -4.15%
• EGP        ECHO ENTERTAINMENT GROUP -3.99%
• TEN        TEN NETWORK HOLDINGS -3.85%
• BDR        BEADELL RESOURCES -3.70%
• RRL         REGIS RESOURCES -3.54%