Thứ Tư, 3 tháng 4, 2013

Aussie market higher at noon

THE Australian stock market was firmer at noon, on track to post a third straight day of gains, with the healthcare and industrials sector leading the broader market higher.

At 12.06pm (AEST), the All Ordinaries index had risen 38.4 points, or 0.84 per cent, to 4618.2 points.

On the ASX 24, the September share price index futures contract was up 36 points at 4555 points, with 18,451 contracts traded.

The local bourse opened about 0.9 per cent higher, but eased back during the morning in keeping with trading patterns of recent times amid sluggish volume and turnover on the last day of the 2010/11 financial year.

Bell Potter senior adviser Stuart Smith said the market had for the past several months gone through "a bit of a spell" between 11.30am and 12pm.

"I'm don't know if it's waiting for overseas markets to open or what, but it sounds like it," Mr Smith said.

"We are in bear phase, but we are trying to climb out of the bear pit," Mr Smith said.

"We are just heading into a positive direction for end of the year and I think everybody is happy with that."

The best-performing sector at 12.06pm was healthcare, up 1.75 per cent according to IRESS data.

Industrials (up 1.59 per cent) and utility stocks (up 1.33 per cent), also were strong during the morning.

Overnight, Wall Street extended gains to a third straight day, while futures contract prices for gold, oil and copper also settled firmer.

Meanwhile, a positive vote in the Greek parliament on austerity measures designed to avoid the nation defaulting on its debts also buoyed market sentiment.

Making news today, Insurance Insurance Australia Group (IAG) maintained guidance of an insurance margin of 8-10 per cent for 2010/11, after saying the Christchurch earthquake earlier in June would cost up to $65 million in net insurance claims.

IAG was steady $3.38, while the insurer's industry peers were flat to higher. QBE was steady $17.04, Suncorp was up one cent at $8.02, and Bank of Queensland was up nine cents, or about 1.2 per cent, at $8.14.

The biggest mover was CSL, which advanced 2.4 per cent, or 77 cents, to $33.07.

National turnover in Australia was 1.15 billion securities worth $1.63 billion.

There were 647 stocks up and 352 down, while 376 were unchanged.


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