Australian Stocks: What Happened Today?

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            [1] => ((SBM))
            [2] => ((OGC))
            [3] => ((MML))
            [4] => ((EVN))
            [5] => ((BLY))
            [6] => ((NNC))
            [7] => ((SVW))
            [8] => ((PDN))
            [9] => ((GFF))
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            [1] => SBM
            [2] => OGC
            [3] => MML
            [4] => EVN
            [5] => BLY
            [6] => NNC
            [7] => SVW
            [8] => PDN
            [9] => GFF
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)

This story features ST. BARBARA LIMITED, and other companies.
For more info SHARE ANALYSIS: SBM
The company is included in ASX300 and ALL-ORDS

By Stephen Hogan, Senior Private Client Adviser, Equities/Derivatives

Australian Market

The Australian market (XJO) closed up 123.7 points or 2.63% to 4834.0 today, the best run in 18 months. The market made up for yesterday's losses and more. Overnight the Dow Jones rose 65.36 points or 0.44% to 14,975.00, combined with a rise in Europe and higher commodities the XJO opened with an 80 point gain. We had a pretty slow afternoon until after the RBA statement (The RBA has left the cash rate on hold for a second month at 2.75%) when the market moved even higher again, closing at the day's high. All sectors were positive for the day; the lowest was Telecommunications up 1.60% all the way to the highest, Gold up 6.87%.

NAB's online retail sales index out today showed online spending was up 18% for the 12 months to May, totaling $13.7 billion. Lower in comparison to the previous number of 24% rise in the 12 months to April. The large rise in April can be attributed to spending for Mother's day promotions.

Brambles Limited ((BXB)) is demerging from the data management business Recall. Recall has been underperforming under the Brambles brand and will now become its own separately listed company. Shareholders of BXB will receive new shares in Recall Holdings, proportionate to their existing BXB holdings. Brambles will not retain any share holdings in Recall after the demerger. The estimates for the value of Recall Holdings are around $2 billion.

QBE Insurance Limited ((QBE)) has said that it is set to reduce annual costs by 2015 by at least $250 million. It aims to replace hundreds of jobs from western countries to Manila, Philippines. In Australia 521 staffing positions have been altered with 39 being made redundant, 52 contractors let go and the rest to be redeployed. This resulted in the Aussie head of QBE Colin Fagen, saying that he was confident that they would cut $85 million by 2015.

Mirabela Nickel Limited ((MBN)) has joined the list of companies to cut its production guidance for 2013. MBN now forecasts production to be between 17k and 18.5k tonnes of nickel this calendar year, lower than the previous expectations of 22k and 24k tones. It said that disruptions to the supply of nitrate in Brazil are restricting the supply of explosives, and maintenance of its primary crusher is slowing down production.

AUD is currently trading at $0.9156, down -$0.0082 against the USD.

Top Performers

Decmil Group Limited ((DCG)) up $0.285 or 16.52% to $2.01

St Barbara Limited ((SBM)) up $0.07 or 15.05% to $0.535

Oceanagold Corporation ((OGC)) up $0.18 or 14.46% to $1.425

Medusa Mining Limited ((MML)) up $0.215 or 13.65% to $1.79

Evolution Mining Limited ((EVN)) up $0.065 or 11.30% to $0.64

Bottom Performers

Boart Longyear Limited ((BLY)) down -$0.075 or -12.00% to $0.55

News Corporation ((NNC)) down -$0.76 or -4.57% to $15.88

Seven Group Holdings Limited ((SVW)) down -$0.12 or -1.82% to $6.48

Paladin Energy Limited ((PDN)) down -$0.013 or -1.38% to $0.932

Goodman Fielder Limited ((GFF)) down -$0.005 or -0.70% to $0.71

Our Comments

Well the market gave us back all of our losses from yesterday in what was the biggest day of gains we have seen since 2011. The gains were broad based and all sectors were in the black. It is the commodity based shares that have taken the market by somewhat of a surprise here by holding up reasonably well yesterday in what was a bad day and today outperforming with Energy, Materials and Gold all up strongly. Banks were also up nicely but WBC and NAB were unable to peg back yesterday's losses whilst ANZ and CBA did.

It really seems to me we have a tug of war going on at the moment with offshore selling butting heads with strong domestic buying. If the currency can stabilise here and we can have both on the same page we will get back to 5000 very quickly.

RBA kept rates on hold today which will help the currency stabilise but not so good from a long term perspective for the overall manufacturers. It was no real surprise not to see a cut today as they have been quite conservative to date but flagged the fact that as inflation is under control they could cut in the future. I think we may see one or two more before we are the bottom of the cycle but they could be months away as yet.

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

Re-published with permission. Views expressed are not by association FNArena's (see our disclaimer).

Stephen Hogan is an Authorised Representative of Novus Capital. Authorised Representative No.345411 – http://www.stephenhogan.com.au

Novus Capital Limited ("Novus") is holder of Australian Financial Services Licence No 238 168. Novus, its directors, officers, associates and employees each declare that they, from time to time, may hold interests in financial products and/or earn brokerage, commission, fees or other benefits from financial products mentioned in this e-mail or attached documents. Unless specifically stated within this e-mail or an attached document, any information communicated by this e-mail constitutes unsolicited general financial product advice which has been compiled without regard to any investor's individual objectives, financial situation or needs. It is not specific advice for any particular investor. Before making any decision about the information provided, you need to consider the appropriateness of this information having regard to your individual objectives, financial situation and needs and consult your adviser. Any indicative information and assumptions used here are summarised and also may change without notice to you, particularly if based on past performance or relate to a future matter.

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