Latest News
It has been another solid start for the Aussie sharemarket, climbing for a third straight day as trade optimism boosts global markets. The ASX 200 is climbing 35 points or 0.6% to 5757.8 approaching lunch. Wall St provided a solid foundation as it lifted for a third straight day, the first three day winning streak since November for the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
On the local front, gains are again generally across the board with all sectors, bar utilities, pushing higher. Financials continue to improve with the four major lenders lifting after a strong rally yesterday on news that Bank of Queensland (BOQ) would raise interest rates on a range of home loans by 11-18 basis points. BOQ is firming another 2.3% today.
Meanwhile it has also been a mixed bag for listed fund managers. Platinum Asset Management (PTM) is down 5.7% after releasing after-market close yesterday that the asset manager saw a fall in funds under management (FUM) compared to the prior year and would receive lower performance fees due to the downturn in the market late in 2018.
Navigator Global Investments (NGI) is slumping 29% on the expectation that management fee revenue is likely to drop 10% in 2H19 compared to 1H19. With market volatility and global downturn slowing investment inflows. Magellan Financial (MFG) is lifting 9% after announcing $70.8 billion in FUM for December 2018 yesterday.
Energy stocks continue to improve as the price of oil has now risen for the past six sessions. Woodside Petroleum (WPL) is 2.2% higher while Beach Energy (BPT) has lifted 3.6%. Global biotech firm, CSL Ltd (CSL) is also helping lift the market as it climbs 2.2%.
The Aussie dollar spiked to a high around 71.7 earlier but has settled back to 71.5 following the release of building approvals declining 9.1% for the month of November and a 1.3% lift in job vacancies for the three months to November.
So far, 0.8b units have traded worth $1.5b with 549 stocks higher, 313 lower and 295 unchanged.
Published by James Tao, CommSec