Australian Stocks: What Happened Today?

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ASX Top Gainers & Losers plus Market Snapshot – 14 April 2014

Gold continues to strengthen, the Aussie 200 index breaks lower through several levels of support, US reporting season is getting underway and a raft of key economic data due out of China this week.

What are traders talking about today? 

• S&P/ASX200 lost 69.7 points or -1.30% on volume of $2 billion, closing ­­at 5358.9.
• Traders will be keeping a close eye on the direction accompanied by the volume over the next 10 days as there are a number of public holidays which will be slightly altering the normal balance of events.
• There will be a number of key mining production reports due out this week across the mining sector, providing information on whether they are producing what they say they are producing, so expect some interesting volatility across those stocks this week.
• There will be a raft of key Chinese data due out this week and traders will be keeping a close eye on any potential talks around stimulus measures on the cards.
• Many traders are speculating whether the current move lower is part of a bigger pull-back across global indices or just some short term weakness. On Friday we had the FTSE down 1.2%, the DAX down 1.5%, Dow Jones lost 0.9% and the Nasdaq fell by 1.3%.
• Gold has managed to strengthen again despite a stall on Thursday and Friday and is sitting around the $1,326 level, having reached an intraday high of $1,329.60.
• The Aussie Dollar is showing some minor bearish divergence as the current overbought levels take time to sink in, with speculators weary of these levels holding, however, it is more than fair to say momentum is still carrying forward to the upside.
• US reporting season began on Friday and will continue over the next couple of weeks and all analysts and traders will be keenly watching for all the big companies and whether they are on track or not.

Economic news

• Australia’s credit and debit card lending figures were released today, pointing towards a slight increase of $58.70 to $3,205.60.
• Out of the US on Monday night AEST around 10:30pm we can expect Retail Sales figures.
• Plenty of economic news out this week and in particular China is having a busy day on Wednesday with GDP, Industrial Production and Fixed Asset Investment.

Australian sector watch

Looking over the charts

• Today’s Aussie 200 market selloff made short work of a number of nearby support levels, pushing below 5400, 5390, 5375 and then only just managed to hold on to 5350.
• Today’s solid red candle is well and truly a bearish signal as markets continue to push lower off the back of too high of valuations and political unrest in Ukraine and Russia.
• In the short term momentum is carrying to the short side and we’ll have to keep a close eye on the most immediate support levels to look for signs of the current move lower to slow down.
• Support levels for the Aussie 200 index are sitting around 5350, 5330 & 5300.

ASX top 200 stock analysis

22% of stocks are showing oversold levels, 18% are showing overbought levels and 53% of stocks are currently above their long term moving average as of close of trading today. View the image below to better understand overbought and oversold levels.

S&P/ASX 200 Gainers and Losers

Top 5 gainers:

• WSA      WESTERN AREAS +5.32%
• OZL        OZ MINERALS +3.02%
• SIP          SIGMA PHARMACEUTICALS +2.84%
• SIR          SIRIUS RESOURCES NL +2.77%
• EGP        ECHO ENTERTAINMENT GROUP +2.22%

Top 5 Losers:

• CCL         COCA-COLA AMATIL -6.98%
• MFG      MAGELLAN FINANCIAL GROUP -6.11%
• PTM       PLATINUM ASSET MANAGEMENT -5.01%
• RHC        RAMSAY HEALTH CARE -4.69%
• CVO       COVER-MORE GROUP -4.63%