Australian Stocks: What Happened Today?

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            [3] => ((TEN))
            [4] => ((SIR))
            [5] => ((KAR))
            [6] => ((CDU))
            [7] => ((DML))
            [8] => ((IGO))
            [9] => ((FWD))
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            [2] => AGO
            [3] => TEN
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            [7] => DML
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8 August 2013 ASX Market Summary – Invast Financial Services

Further tapering talks muddied the US trading session to provide a gloomy outlook for the day but investors took no notice whatsoever, managing a buoyant trading session, following yesterday’s large sell off, leaving the S&P/ASX 200 to find 53.5 extra points or 1.06% to close at 5064.8 on below average volume of $3.7 billion.

Unemployment in Australia has remained steady at 5.7% in July with analysts expecting a modest 0.1% rise but the big news came from Chinese trade data, with exports rising 5.1% in July and imports at 10.9%, leaving the trade surplus at $17.82 billion.

Telecommunications stocks were well and truly on the up today with Telstra pushing forward nicely (thanks to a 13 per cent rise in annual profit), with the sector rising an upbeat 2.18%. The Information Technology sector also had a better than average day rising 1.77%. There was only one blemish across the sectors today with the Utilities sector being pushed down 0.18%. Energy was the next worst performer but it still managed a small rise of 0.10%.

Looking over the charts

As testimony to the strength of the current medium term uptrend, yesterday’s large sell off has been met with a steady accumulation at these slightly lower prices. The market today rallied a quick fire 30 points and then continued that momentum for the rest of the day only to see some minor selling towards the end of the session but more importantly today’s close was above yesterday’s mid point. The piercing line formation is one of the stronger candlestick patterns and we nearly saw that complete, all but for the initial open being higher today. Normally a piercing line formation has a slight gap lower on open before an end of day close above the previous days midpoint.

S&P/ASX 200 Gainers and Losers

Billabong International ((BBG)) was the only shining light yesterday rising over 10% and today it again rewarded those long the stock to post an incredibly handy 17.35% rise, completing the ascending triangle formation with triple the average volume. Mount Gibson Iron ((MGX)) has been up and down of late but more importantly, traders managed to push the price through a triple top at the $0.61 level to rise 8.55% and close at $0.635.

Top 5 gainers:

BILLABONG INTERNATIONAL +17.35%
MOUNT GIBSON IRON +8.55%
ATLAS IRON ((AGO)) +5.85%
TEN NETWORK HOLDINGS ((TEN)) +5.66%
SIRIUS RESOURCES ((SIR)) +5.56%

Karoon Gas ((KAR)) shares took a nose dive, falling 8.39% after they went to market to raise $150 million through an institutional placement at $5.10 with the shares close just above that figure at $5.13. Cudeco ((CDU)) was unable to hold on to recent support levels and today saw it break down 7.43% and hit the lowest price since December 2008.

Top 5 Losers:

KAROON GAS AUSTRALIA -8.39%
CUDECO -7.43%
DISCOVERY METALS ((DML)) -6.67%
INDEPENDENCE GROUP ((IGO)) -4.57%
FLEETWOOD CORPORATION ((FWD)) -4.37%