An office worker talks on his phone as he looks the stock board at the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) building in central Sydney June 15, 2012.
An office worker talks on his phone as he looks the stock board at the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) building in central Sydney June 15, 2012. Reuters/Daniel Munoz
  • Australian shares are trading at their best levels in a week, with the ASX 200 up 1.6 per cent. This is the market’s first opportunity to react to Monday’s debt deal between Greece and the Eurozone which was reached after the close of trade yesterday.
  • Greek PM Alexis Tsipras will now work to pass the deal through the Greek parliament. This includes harsh measures like the sale of €50bn in assets (~AU$74bn) and pension reforms.
  • All 12 sectors of the Australian sharemarket are rising by more than 1 per cent at lunch, with the miners surging by close to 3 per cent.
  • The major banks are making up a quarter of the market’s overall improvements on their own. The big four are 0.5 per cent to 1.4 per cent higher.
  • BHP Billiton (BHP) is up 2.8 per cent and is flirting with its best levels since 26 June. The miner and fifth largest ASX listed company is accounting for 10 per cent of the market’s gains.
  • A weekly survey of consumer confidence fell by 3.6 per cent to a 12-month low. Sentiment has plunged by 8 per cent in just a fortnight. This perhaps shouldn’t come as a surprise as the Greek crisis and shaky Chinese market were front of mind last week when the survey was conducted. Retail stocks like Myer (MYR), Harvey Norman (HVN) and JB Hi-Fi (JBH) are all higher.
  • Business confidence managed to edge higher in June despite the global issues looming.
  • Volume is average at lunch with 719.2m shares traded, worth $1.8bn. 580 stocks are up, 216 down and 288 flat.

Steven Daghlian - Market Analyst (Author)

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