This is not my words but a good round up none the less

Australian equities fluctuated today fairing through a number of economic announcements coming out of Asia. The index topped out at 5,211 before midday and proceeded to fall away to reach a low of 5,182. Australian unemployment fell to 5.5% from 5.6% a month earlier as the economy added 50,100 jobs in April vs estimates of 11,000. Consumer Cyclicals, namely media stocks – Ten Network (A$0.32, +4.9%), News (A$32.47, +2.9%) and Seven West Media (A$2.37, +3.0%) did well today, while Staples – Wesfarmers (A$41.91, -0.2%) and Woolworths (A$34.61, +0.2%) finished relatively flat. Qantas Airways (A$1.815, +0.6%) climbed higher unlike the rest of the Industrial sector and Telstra (A$5.03, -0.8%) weighed on the Telco sector as it dropped about a percent.

In the Asian markets, Korean equities rallied as the Bank of Korea jumped on the global bandwagon and cut its key rate to 2.50%, down 25 basis points. Chinese equities on the other hand were worse for wear after Chinese CPI came in at 2.4%, slightly higher than the 2.3% expected by economists. The Aussie jumped more than half a cent following the Chinese CPI figures, reclaiming ground lost after the RBA unexpectedly cut the cash rate by 0.25% on Tuesday.

Looking now at BBY house stocks, National Australia Bank (A$32.68, -2.1%) reported earnings this morning, posting a respectable result with income growth of 2% from 2H12 to 1H13. On the other hand, as highlighted by BBY analyst, Brett Le Mesurier, there was a $226M loss from its UK commercial real estate portfolio, and expense growth exceeded income growth by 1%. Also The bank did not, like some of its peers announce a special dividend, which may have contributed to the decline NAB saw today.

Another market heavyweight, News (A$32.47, +2.9%), reported earnings after the close of the US session this morning, EBIT was slightly above consensus on stronger revenues of US$9.5B. Net income was more than double the BBY estimate of US$1.2B at US$2.9B and almost 4 times the Bloomberg consensus, prompting BBY analyst, Mark McDonnell to upgrade the recommendation on NWS to a BUY.

Linc Energy Ltd (A$1.76, +13.5%) bounced back after yesterdays disappointing news on the US Golf production.
 Buru Energy (A$1.82, +2.2%) announced that the Natural Gas Agreement signed by the State Government with joint venture partners, Buru Energy and Mitubishi Corp in November last year has now been introduced into Parliament.

AMP (A$5.50, -1.1%) released its 1Q13 cashflows. BBY analyst, Anthony Vogel highlights that Assets under management increased by $6303M between 31/12/12 and 31/3/13 due to market increases and by $95M from new net flows into products. Also, by product, SMF had the most new net flows which we estimate to be $1.4B. These are the lowest margin products and the company does not refer to these as cashflows, but market movements. Flows into the high margin product North were also strong at $0.7B.

Excelsior Gold (A$0.15, +7.1%) announced today that the company has added 39koz to ‘in-pit’ resources at Zoroastrian by drilling out material previously classified as waste, which led to the market bidding up the stock half a percent.

Health Care company, Sigma Pharmaceuticals (A$0.795, +3.2%), led the sector following its AGM yesterday. BBY analyst, Dr Dennis Hulme, cautions that the company’s high dividend payout ratio is not sustainable in the long term.

Looking at the sectors, Healthcare led the ASX/S&P 500 – CSL (A$60.72, +1.9%), Sonic Healthcare (A$14.10, +1.6%), Cochlear (A$69.13, +1.5%) were broadly bought against the favour of Mesoblast (A$5.75, -3.4%), Sirtex Medical (A$10.34, -2.2%), Acrux (A$3.83, -1.5%) and Primary Health Care (A$5.30, -0.7%).

Financial stocks underperformed the market, Major Banks – Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (A$30.59, -2.8%), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (A$71.04, -0.3%) and National Australia Bank (A$32.68, -2.1%) caught some selling while Westpac Banking (A$33.35, +1.2%) broke from the rest to climb almost a percent. Insurers – Suncorp Group (A$12.45, -0.9%), Insurance Australia Group (A$5.94, -0.5%) and QBE Insurance Group (A$14.08, +0.6%) were mostly underperformed while Diversified Financials – Macquarie Group (A$45.40, +0.7%), Flexigroup (A$4.48, +3.0%) and Perpetual (A$42.64, +0.5%) were mostly higher.

Materials outperformed with all the Gold Miners in the index seeing green, leading the pack was St Barbara (A$0.715, +25.4%), followed by Silver Lake Resources (A$1.15, +11.1%), Kingsgate Consolidated (A$2.07, +9.5%), Resolute Mining (A$0.915, +8.3%) and Beadell Resources (A$0.75, +4.2%). RIO Tinto (A$58.20, -1.2%) traded lower while BHP Billiton (A$34.54, +0.7%) climbed with Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (A$3.92, +0.8%) and Lynas (A$0.645, +8.4%).
 Oil & Gas stocks were a mixed bag with Beach Energy (A$1.345, -0.7%), Maverick Drilling and Exploration (A$0.60, -0.8%) and Karoon Gas Australia (A$5.34, +0.2%) falling behind. On the other hand Paladin Energy Ltd (A$0.91, +7.1%), Whitehaven Coal (A$2.10, +3.4%) and Buru Energy (A$1.82, +2.2%) traded higher.