MARKET TALK: S&P/ASX 200 Up 0.4%; Cyclicals Recover Early

18th Jun 2010 01:59

0058 GMT [Dow Jones] S&P/ASX 200 up 0.4% at 4543.4, hits 4556.3 as cyclicals recover from Thursday's pull-back and defensives also trade firmly after late recovery on Wall Street. Materials, financials and energy jump in early trading, with BHP (BHP.AU) up 0.6%, Rio (RIO.AU) up 1.2%, Origin (ORG.AU) up 0.9%, major banks up 0.5%-1.0% and QBE (QBE.AU) up 0.9%. Among defensives, Telstra (TLS.AU) up 0.6%, CSL up 0.6%, Foster's (FGL.AU) up 0.5%, although utilities and consumer staples are underperforming. Industrials are weakest, with Brambles (BXB.AU) down 3.7%. David Jones (DJS.AU) down 2.0% after CEO resigns due to inappropriate behaviour, although earnings guidance reaffirmed. Domestic market may yet prove vulnerable to stop-loss hunting in cyclicals after disappointing U.S. initial jobless claims data left Wall Street down most of the night. But traders are mostly short-term neutral and longer-term bullish. "The market is really just marking time because global economic data has been mixed, we've risen about 5.0% in the last 8 days," says Shaw Stockbroking Head of Trading Jamie Spiteri. "It will take time to resolve the issues overhanging markets, where you are talking about European debt, the sustainability of U.S. economic recovery, Asian growth or our domestic political situation." ([email protected]) Contact us in Singapore. 65 64154 140; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 17, 2010 20:59 ET (00:59 GMT)