Australian Stocks: What Happened Today?

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List StockArray ( [0] => FMG [1] => LYC [2] => BRU [3] => WHC [4] => PDN [5] => ILU )

By Ashley Jessen

ASX Top Gainers & Losers plus Market Snapshot – 15 October 2013

Tremendous progress are two words very sweet to investors ears at the moment and that is what Harry Reid has mentioned in regards to talks on the US debt ceiling and as a result the S&P/ASX 200 headed north by over 50 points within 20 minutes and consolidation those gains in a narrow 20 point range for the remainder of the session. In the end our market enjoyed an impressive 51.2 point gain or 0.98% on $3.3 billion of volume.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) presented their board minutes today suggesting they are still on a easing bias with many analyst's tipping a 15% chance of a further rate cut in November. One to watch tonight in the US will be profit results by 8 of the heavy weights, which should provide some volatility and interesting news for day traders.

The Information Technology sector managed a brilliant bounce back from yesterday's weak trading session to post a outstanding 2.96% gain on rising volume. Next best we saw the Energy sector behaving very well, rising 1.83% and the only two sectors that were unable to break into the black were Health Care and Utilities, both falling 0.34% and 0.30% respectively.

Looking over the charts

Yesterday's pull back was only minor but few technical traders would have considered a definite break higher a strong possibility. Most traders would have been thinking about a possible consolidation as markets continue to digest the uncertainty around the US government shut down and the looming US debt ceiling soft deadline. Between the 5250 and 5300 level we are in somewhat of a no-man's land but momentum for the short, medium and long term continue to favour the upside.

ASX top 200 stock analysis

17% of stocks are showing oversold levels, 26% are showing overbought levels and 59% of stocks are currently above their long term moving average as of close of trading today. Our top 200 ASX stocks have managed to move from severely oversold to fairly well balanced with a higher overbought reading now, which means the next top or slow down in the market will be critical to watch for any weakness or a potential break higher with momentum.

S&P/ASX 200 Gainers and Losers

Linc Energy ((LNC)) has managed and incredible 29% gain over the last 5 days with an amazing jump of 15.70% today which places it right on resistance at $1.40 with a lot of work to do to get out of the recent downtrend. Fortescue Metals ((FMG)) has had an incredible run since June, rising 82% in less than 4 months and today's large gap up and 5.84% gain put its at the highest price since February this year.

Top 5 gainers:

LNC        LINC ENERGY +15.70%
FMG      FORTESCUE METALS GROUP +5.84%
((LYC))         LYNAS CORPORATION +5.48%
((SDL))         SUNDANCE RESOURCES +5.19%
((BRU))       BURU ENERGY +4.82%

Whitehaven Coal ((WHC)) severely underperformed the market and dropped below critical support at $1.80 and today's 5.60% loss puts it at the lowest price since April 2009 and well and truly on a downhill slide. Echo Entertainment Group ((EGP)) managed to pull itself out of consolidation but the 4.78% drop will leave investors scratching their heads and nervous about the long term prospects of this stock.

Top 5 Losers:

WHC      WHITEHAVEN COAL -5.60%
EGP        ECHO ENTERTAINMENT GROUP -4.78%
((PDN))       PALADIN ENERGY -3.61%
((SIP))          SIGMA PHARMACEUTICALS -3.51%
((ILU))         ILUKA RESOURCES -3.24%

 

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