Australian Stocks: What Happened Today?

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    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => ((FMG))
            [1] => ((EWC))
            [2] => ((DML))
            [3] => ((RSG))
            [4] => ((AGO))
            [5] => ((MML))
            [6] => ((BBG))
            [7] => ((BBG))
            [8] => ((MDL))
            [9] => ((BRG))
            [10] => ((UGL))
            [11] => ((TEN))
        )

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        (
            [0] => FMG
            [1] => EWC
            [2] => DML
            [3] => RSG
            [4] => AGO
            [5] => MML
            [6] => BBG
            [7] => BBG
            [8] => MDL
            [9] => BRG
            [10] => UGL
            [11] => TEN
        )

)

List StockArray ( [0] => FMG [1] => EWC [2] => RSG [3] => MML [4] => BRG )

By Ashley Jessen

 

Economic data made for a volatile trading session across the Aussie Dollar and the S&P/ASX 200, with the Aussie Dollar hitting a wild intraday low followed by a massive upswing to hit fresh intraday highs, whilst the S&P/ASX 200 managed to shoot higher early in the session only to pull back and post an 18 point gain or 0.35% and close at 5035.1

China’s Flash PMI for July came in lower again, pushing down 0.5 points to hit 47.7. In addition to this the inflationary figures for the June quarter came out with the figure rising 0.4% with the rise in Crude Oil prices playing a large part in that.

Materials and Telecommunications stocks provided the highlights for the day with both rising over 1% to lock in gains of 1.12% and 1.07% respectively, thanks to a few of the heavy weights such as Fortescue Metals ((FMG)) performing well on the day. Nearly half of the sectors ended in the red with Health Care down 1.17% and Consumer Discretionary down 0.82%.

Looking over the charts

Momentum has continued to favour the bulls and for good reason, with recent market action showing steady signs of a new short term uptrend establishing itself. The bears have had ample opportunity to take the market down but have been unable to establish any authority. Ironically the bulls haven’t established any authority either and so we are watching consistent trading sessions that lack any definite and confident direction on relatively light to moderate volume. As discussed yesterday, a clear pattern has been emerging over the last couple of days with the market rising for the first 2 hours, only to retrace and give up 50-75% of those gains by the end of the session.

S&P/ASX 200 Gainers and Losers

Energy World Corp ((EWC)) pushed ahead strongly, maintaining the momentum established at the beginning of the week to rise a healthy 12.73% and break through into new blue sky territory, hitting the highest price in 15 months. Discovery Metals (DML:ASX) has been bouncing around the $0.15 – $0.20 range with today’s rise one of the better of the week, moving up 12.50% on steady volume.

Top 5 gainers:

• ENERGY WORLD CORPORATION +12.73%
• DISCOVERY METALS ((DML)) +12.50%
• RESOLUTE MINING ((RSG)) +9.33%
• ATLAS IRON ((AGO)) +8.98%
• MEDUSA MINING ((MML)) +6.57%

Billabong International ((BBG)) shares retraced a modest 6.02% as profit takers stepped in to lock in recent strong gains and with volume on the low side, one would expect the control is in the hands of the bulls, especially on a short term basis. Mineral Deposits (MDL:ASX) fell 4.59% as the $2.20 mark proved slightly too difficult to push through, finishing the day at $2.08 and proving that at least in the short term, it is unable to break out of the long term down trend currently in place.

Top 5 Losers:

• BILLABONG INTERNATIONAL ((BBG)) -6.02%
• MINERAL DEPOSITS ((MDL)) -4.59%
• BREVILLE GROUP ((BRG)) -3.98%
• UGL ((UGL)) -3.75%
• TEN NETWORK HOLDINGS ((TEN)) -3.64%

 

Reprinted with permission of the publisher. Content included in this article is not by association the view of FNArena (see our disclaimer).