The Australian share market is tracking 0.3 per cent lower at noon, erasing yesterday’s gains with traders collecting their profits and selling down across all sectors, except mining.
The local bourse dropped at the open, despite strong record leads from Wall Street with the Dow tracking to its first 6 week of straight gains since 1954.
Materials the only space pushing up after the iron ore price strengthened, rising 3.2 per cent. Orocobre
(ASX:ORE) gained about 1.9 per cent while Alumina
(ASX:AWC) rose about 1.7 per cent and gold miner Newcrest Mining
(ASX:NCM) added 1.4 per cent, beating the heavyweights like Rio
(ASX:RIO) and BHP
(ASX:BHP) in terms of gains.
Retailer Myer
(ASX:MYR) is front running and gained about 4 per cent higher at one stage.
Holding us back and seeing the most selling is property funds like Mirvac
(ASX:MGR), while indiscriminate profit taking is taking its toll across the board.
Oil price still at holding onto one-year highs, while Bitcoin is continuing to trade under US$15,000, 25 per cent off its peak level that it hit last week.
The S&P/ASX 200 index is 21 points down or 0.30 per cent lower at 6,070.
On the futures market the SPI is 21 points lower.
Company newsUBS Group took the opportunity to become a substantial holder of Tabcorp
(ASX:TAH), taking its holding to 8.83 per cent. It comes just two weeks after Tabcorp merged and bought out Tatts
(ASX:TTS) becoming an $11.3 billion gaming empire. Its shares are trading 0.3 per cent lower at $5.61.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia
(ASX:CBA) sold out of FlexiGroup
(ASX:FXL), which it was a substantial holder of and quickly bought the shares back, maintaining its 5 per cent holding flexible finance business that serves retail firms like Harvey Norman
(ASX:HVN) and Apple resellers. Shares in Commonwealth Bank of Australia
(ASX:CBA) are flat at $80.46.
Best and worst performersThe best performing sector was Materials adding 0.06 per cent to 11,581.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Myer Holdings Limited
(ASX:MYR), rising 3.57 per cent to $0.65. Shares in IPH Limited
(ASX:IPH) and Orocobre Limited
(ASX:ORE) also higher.
The worst performing sector was Telcos, shedding 0.7 per cent to 1,317 points.
The worst performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Saracen Mineral Holdings Limited
(ASX:SAR), dropping 3.7 per cent to $1.70. Shares in Bega Cheese Limited
(ASX:BGA) and Genworth Mortgage Insurance Australia Limited
(ASX:GMA) also are lower.
Commodities and the dollarGold is trading at $US1,295 an ounce.
One Australian dollar is buying 78.02 US cents.
CryptocurrenciesBitcoin is trading at $14,625
Ethereum is trading at $740
And Litecoin is trading at $248
