Australian Stocks: What Happened Today?

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            [1] => ((PRU))
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            [3] => ((MML))
            [4] => ((BDR))
            [5] => ((AQG))
            [6] => ((BSL))
            [7] => ((GFF))
            [8] => ((LYC))
            [9] => ((AMC))
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            [8] => LYC
            [9] => AMC
            [10] => AGO
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List StockArray ( [0] => PRU [1] => SBM [2] => MML [3] => BSL [4] => LYC [5] => AMC )

By Ashley Jessen

19 September 2013 ASX Market Summary – Invast Financial Services

Record 5 year highs, off the back of the US Federal Reserve suggesting possible lingering economic risks, have greeted Australian investors with today’s strong bullish breakout above previous resistance points, allowing the S&P/ASX 200 to touch on the 5300 mark and post a healthy 57.4 point gain or 1.08% on $6.3 billion in turnover.

Precious metals had an extremely robust trading session, rising between 4% and 6.6%, with the likes of Newcrest Mining ((NCM)) enjoying the strength behind the upswing. On the Aussie Dollar front we saw it too have an exceptional trading session and rising to new 3 month highs.

The Materials Sector had one of the best sessions this year, rising 2.24% off the back of strong moves across the commodity and precious metals markets overnight. Industrials also had a robust up day, rising 1.38% on a day that had very little red. Only one sector was unable to enjoy the upbeat news on the day with Consumer Staples falling a meagre 0.07%. The second worst sector was Utilities but even this sector managed to rise 0.39%.

Looking over the charts

Clear breakouts with momentum supporting it have finally happened off the back of the lack of tapering coming out of the Federal Reserve. Markets thoroughly enjoyed this news with a strong bullish candle and a clear break above an area that has been causing a lot of consolidation, providing further reason to continue the bullish bias going forward. Clearly 5 years highs are worth talking about and don’t happen every day and it appears the nervous energy and hesitation has been building and should now provide an excellent support zone if a pull back from here was to occur.

ASX top 200 stock analysis

18% of stocks are showing oversold levels, 27% are showing overbought levels and 68% of stocks are currently above their long term moving average as of close of trading today.

S&P/ASX 200 Gainers and Losers

Perseus Mining ((PRU)) managed to lead a very strong day from the mining sector, pushing ahead an incredible 22.52% but had dropped a significant 38% over the last 5 weeks. At least today’s gain will provide some respite for the bleeding that investors have taken and today’s volume was 3 times the average as well, which is another positive. St Barbara ((SBM)) has had a similar fate of recent time to Perseus Mining, falling around 38% but rebounding today with a more than solid 20.18% gain on double the average volume.

Top 5 gainers:

PERSEUS MINING +22.52%
ST BARBARA +20.18%
MEDUSA MINING ((MML)) +18.54%
BEADELL RESOURCES ((BDR)) +17.57%
ALACER GOLD CORP ((AQG)) +16.56%

Bluescope Steel ((BSL)) has been one of the strongest performers at the early part of 2013 but has been stuck consolidating for 7 months with today’s 2.91% fall bringing the price right in to the middle of the range. Goodman Fielder ((GFF)) happened to pull back a well-within-reason 2.68% as it too has been consolidating for months, caught in a sideways band with today’s drop barely registering on the radar.

Top 5 Losers:

BLUESCOPE STEEL -2.91%
GOODMAN FIELDER -2.68%
LYNAS CORPORATION ((LYC)) -2.41%
AMCOR ((AMC)) -1.85%
ATLAS IRON ((AGO)) -1.73%

 

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