Australian Stock Market Report – Afternoon December 24, 2014

An office worker is reflected in the window of the Australian Securities Exchange building displaying the ASX50 curve for Wednesday in central Sydney August 7, 2013. Australian shares skidded 1.3 percent on Wednesday, its biggest fall in five weeks, hit by sharp falls in miners and financials as regional markets tracked a soft Wall Street lead amid uncertainty about the U.S. Federal Reserve's stimulus programme REUTERS/Daniel Munoz (AUSTRALIA - Tags: BUSINESS)

 The Australian share market has ended a shortened Christmas Eve session (14:00 AEDT Close) around the best levels of the day following an indifferent start where local investors sniffed at the strong gains on Wall Street overnight. US stocks posted impressive improvements following figures revealed that the final estimate of economic growth for the September quarter showed a 5.0% annualised pace, well above estimates of 4.3%

 Additionally, in other good news from the world's biggest economy revealed that chain store sales were up 5.3% in the latest week, up from 4.1% in the prior week. New home sales fell 1.6% to a 438,000 annual pace in November. Personal income rose by 0.4% in November with spending up 0.6%. Home prices rose 0.5% in October to be up 4.5% on the year. US stocks were generally higher on optimism about the economy. But technology shares lagged, dragged down weakness in the biotechnology sector. At the close of trade the Dow Jones index was up by 65 points or 0.4% to a record high of 18,024 points with the S&P 500 index up by 0.2% to record highs. But the Nasdaq was lower by 16 points or 0.3%.

 The gains for local shares at the open were short-lived. The ASX 200 started with a gain of 7 points and quickly moved into negative territory. At the lows of the session the market was down by 14 points. However by early afternoon a revival was in train and the market continued to squeeze higher. The turnaround meant that most sectors ended with a positive sign in front of them.

 The volatile fortunes for the mining and energy sector remained in place on Wednesday. Both sectors enjoyed buying support after commodities rose on the earlier mentioned data that showed the US economy growing at the fastest annualised quarterly rate in 11 years. Brent crude rose by US$1.58 or 2.6% to US$61.69 a barrel. US Nymex crude rose by US$1.86 or 3.4% to US$57.12 a barrel. As a group the energy sector was one of the best improved. Woodside Petroleum (WPL) closed at $38.15 a gain of 18 cents or 0.47%, Tap Oil (TAP) shares ended at 43 cents , up 1 cent or 2.3%

 In the mining space there were mixed fortunes with investors buoyed by the US data, although the mood was contained by the fact that Iron ore fell by US$2.40 or 3.7% to US$65.60 a tonne on Tuesday. Junior miners were the noted underperformers compared to their heavyweight peers Mount Gibson (MGX) shares were at 24 cents for a loss of 0.5 cent or 2% , while Fortescue Metals Group was down 1 cent at $2.55

 Healthcare stocks were among the weaker performer reflecting similar fortunes for their US counterparts which underperformed as the Dow Jones closed above the 18,000 mark for the first time. Shares in blood products group CSL were at $87.47 down 19 cents or 0.22% While Cochlear (COH) was at $76.70 a loss of 35 cents or 0.45%

 Major currencies have fallen against the greenback in the last 12 hours. The Aussie dollar rose from lows near US80.90c to highs around US81.40c but then fell back to US80.90c in late US trade. In late Asian trade the local unit was at 81.10 US cents.

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