Australian Stocks: What Happened Today?

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            [0] => ((TLS))
            [1] => ((AWE))
            [2] => ((NST))
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            [0] => TLS
            [1] => AWE
            [2] => NST
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This story features TELSTRA GROUP LIMITED, and other companies.
For more info SHARE ANALYSIS: TLS
The company is included in ASX20, ASX50, ASX100, ASX200, ASX300 and ALL-ORDS

By Ashley Jessen, director of LearnCFDs.com and author of CFDs Made Simple

Surging local and world markets have provided investors with a fantastic April with the S&P/ASX 200 up an outstanding 4.6%, giving investors plenty to smile about and with momentum clearly favouring the bulls, May is looking very healthy indeed. Today saw fresh highs for 2013 and the highest since June 2008 with our market up 65.39 points or 1.3% to close at 5191.2 on over $5 billion worth of turnover.

Financials had literally no limits today as Commonwealth Bank ((CBA)) pushed well and truly into new blue sky territory with the whole sector leading the way, up 2.46%. Telecommunications stocks also performed exceptionally with Telstra ((TLS)) also hitting new highs, with the sector up 1.01%. Only two sectors failed to hit positive territory with Energy and Health Care losing ground, down 0.42% and 0.09%.

Looking over the charts

Momentum has been gathering pace and today showed no bounds with our market closing the month of April very strongly and more importantly, above resistance at 5150 and with strong volume hitting today’s rally, bulls should be well and truly excited about the prospects in May. After the market close some profit takers stepped in to push the index off the intraday highs but certainly not enough to cause any concern with momentum going forward.

S&P/ASX 200 Gainers and Losers

AWE Limited ((AWE)) got the momentum going to the upside today finishing 6.17% ahead of yesterday’s close on double the average volume and looking strong to break through resistance at $1.30. ANZ Bank ((ANZ)) surged 5.78% with a massive gap up in the share price off the back of positive news, reporting better than expected first half profits of $3.2 billion and announced a 73 cent dividend.

On one of the more positive days of the year, we still had a few stocks struggling with Northern Star Resources ((NST)) the worst performer in the top 200, down 8.78% and struggling to hold on to support around the $0.68 mark. Silver Lake Resources ((SLR)) was one of the top stocks in the red, falling 7.89% and capping off a terrible month with the stock down 50% in April alone.

(For a more comprehensive summary of last night’s market action see FNArena’s Overnight Report.)

Disclaimer: There is a high degree of risk involved in trading various financial instruments. It is possible to lose significant amounts of money when trading the markets. As your trading decisions are beyond my control, I accept no responsibility for your trading results. Please seek professional financial advice to determine if trading is for you.

While Ashley Jessen attempts to ensure that the information herein is accurate at the date the information was produced, however, Ashley Jessen does not guarantee the accuracy, timeliness, completeness, performance or fitness for a particular purpose of any of the information provided herein and under no circumstances are they to be considered an offer, solicitation to invest or be construed as giving investment advice.

Technical limitations

If you are reading this story through a third party distribution channel and you cannot see charts included, we apologise, but technical limitations are to blame.

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