Australian Stock Market Report – Midday 10/21/13

MID-SESSION REPORT
(12.20pm AEDT)

With the US political circus behind us (for now), investors are taking the opportunity to buy up, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up by 0.7 per cent and cracking a five-year high in the process. The US S&P500 index (a measure of the performances of American's 500 biggest companies) cracked through an-time high on Friday.

Iron ore miner, Sundance Resources (SDL) is up 21.2 per cent, adding to last week's 32 per cent gains. SDL has answered an ASX price and volume query saying it isn't aware of the reasons for the solid rally. Fortescue Metals (FMG) is up 1.9 per cent or 10 cents to $5.40 while the larger BHP Billiton (BHP) is up 1.1 per cent.

Share registry company, Computershare (CPU) is up 0.89 per cent, taking the gains to almost 3 per cent this month. On 7 October, CPU agreed to acquire Canadian based transfer agent, Olympia.

The major banks are solid contributors to today's gains, with the major up by as much as 1 per cent, taking the financial sector's gains this calendar year to 25 per cent.

No major market moving economic news is issued today, however the CBA Business Sales indicator, CommSec's State of States report and a land report are the highlights. The sales indicator showed that economy wide spending eased slightly in September after 13 months of gains. The BSI fell by 0.1 per cent last month. This is calculated by tracking the value of credit and debit card transactions at CBA merchant facilities. Retail stocks are holding onto gains, with JB Hi-Fi (JBH) up 1.13 per cent and one of the sector's outperformers. The State of the States report shows that the mining states are the currently the strongest economies.

Looking ahead, the latest quarterly Consumer Price Index (CPI) will be issued on Wednesday and will be one of the more important releases. One the RBA's main aims is to keep inflation in check. BHP Billiton (BHP) will be releasing its quarter production report, with a solid result expected. Across the region, HSBC's Flash Manufacturing PMI (a measure of China's manufacturing industry health) will be out tomorrow. In the US tomorrow night, the delayed non-farm payrolls (jobs report) will be issued 18 days late (due to US government shutdown.

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