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Local shares are rebounding from losses yesterday after tariff rates from the US and retaliation by China, being less than feared. Overnight, China announced tariffs of between 5-10% against US$60 billion of US imports.
Wall Street closed higher and has provided a strong lead for the local bourse. The ASX 200 is advancing by 25 points or 0.4% to 6187 towards lunch.
Leading the market higher is the improvement in the resource sectors with the impetus from stronger commodity prices. Base metals were led higher by a 2.4% lift in copper.
Major miners are all pushing higher with BHP Billiton (BHP) and Rio Tinto (RIO) are both more than 2% higher. Energy producers are also benefitting from a ~2% rise in crude oilprices.
Financials are also improving despite a mixed performance from the big four banks with Commonwealth Bank (CBA) a touch weaker.
Weighing on the broader market for a third session this week is the healthcare sector. CSL Ltd (CSL) is leading the losses, down 1.5% while aged care providers again come under some pressure from broker downgrades. TPG Telecom (TPM) is down 5.7%, also on a broker downgrade, following the release of its FY18 results yesterday.
In other company news, dairy company Synlait Milk (SM1) has announced its FY18 full year results with net profit nearly doubling to $74.6 million. Revenue also lifted to $879 million on strong infant formula sales but were a touch weaker than Bloomberg estimates. SM1 shares are down 5% so far.
The Aussie dollar is stabilising around the US72.2 cents after yesterday’s RBA minutes indicating the next rate move is higher, but also in response to higher commodity prices. There is no major economic data released in Australia today. RBA assistant governor Chris Kent is speaking today titled “Money – Born of Credit?”.
Approaching lunch, 0.9B units have traded worth $2.1B with 564 stocks higher, 395 weaker and 361 unchanged.
Published by James Tao – (Author), CommSec