A quiet day with currencies issue dominating again. The index flirted with an a positive day before succumbing to apathy and nerves pre Wayne’s Swan Song tomorrow and closed around 5200. Westpac Banking (A$31.80, -3.2%) and Macquarie Group (A$45.48, -1.1%) went ex-dividend today and accounted for 30% of the daily volume. Other banks were slightly better with National Australia Bank (A$33.18, +2.2%) leading the way. In other financials QBE Insurance Group (A$15.06, +3.4%) continued their march higher as did AMP (A$5.60, +1.4%), Suncorp Group (A$12.54, +1.3%), Insurance Australia Group (A$5.97, +0.8%) and Perpetual (A$44.19, +0.5%). Industrials also looked better today with Brambles (A$9.09, +0.4%) and Telstra (A$5.03, +0.4%) better. The W’s were also strong today with Wesfarmers (A$42.72, +0.9%), Woolworths (A$35.13, +1.2%), Westfield Group (A$12.11, +0.8%) and Woodside Petroleum (A$37.35, +0.3%) .Resources gave up the ghost again as the weaker Aussie hit sentiment ,BHP Billiton (A$34.55, -0.6%), RIO Tinto (A$57.59, -1.5%), Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (A$3.83, -2.0%) all fell and of course the Golds were easier following falls in bullion over the weekend. Newcrest Mining (A$16.74, -3.8%) took another pounding as did second liners like Kingsgate Consolidated (A$1.905, -6.6%), Silver Lake Resources (A$1.02, -8.9%), and Evolution Mining (A$0.95, -0.5%) and smaller ones like Medusa Mining (A$2.64, -7.7%) and Beadell Resources (A$0.685, -6.8%) had problems. In other metals Oz Minerals (A$4.44, -4.3%) and Atlas Iron (A$0.96, -4.0%) continued their falls as all the good gains last week evaporated.

Mining services were in the headlights today after another profit slide in Coffey International (A$0.10, -56.5%). Weakness across the board with Macmahon (A$0.175, -2.8%), NRW (A$1.315, -2.6%) and Monadelphous Group (A$20.59, -1.8%) amongst the big ones to get smaller. In retail stocks we saw some general weakness with Harvey Norman (A$2.86, -0.7%), JB Hi-Fi (A$17.24, -0.5%) and David Jones (A$2.88, unch) all off a touch, whilst in Media News (A$33.47, +1.4%) made the most of the lower dollar.

Around the grounds in Asia, the Nikkei continues to push higher given the G7 seems to be pretty relaxed about ‘Abenomics’ and the lowering of the yen!

Volume wasn’t too bad for a Monday but a large proportion was concentrated in Westpac Banking (A$31.80, -3.2%) Ex and Cum markets.

Stocks in the News

Coffey International (A$0.10, -56.5%) took a big caffeine hit today as they fessed up to the difficulties facing the Aussie market. No final div, profit downgrade and jobs cut. They talked of economic contraction in Australia.

REA Group Ltd (A$33.08, +5.8%) had a great day pushing ever higher after filing accounts in the US. Still market cap of $4.2bn does seem a little stretched to me on EBITDA of 120 for the first nine months.

In house stocks Karoon Gas Australia (A$6.69, unch) continued last weeks’ rise, Nexus Energy (A$0.135, -3.6%) fell away and Roc Oil Company (A$0.525, +7.1%) bucked the trend to finish better. Also the big winner from the Malaysian election looks like being Lynas (A$0.685, +3.8%) which had another strong day following the ruling party’s win.

Flexigroup (A$4.39, -3.9%) fell away after the $45m placement last week but still at a good premium to the 3.99 they were placed at.

Duluxgroup (A$4.59, +2.5%) first half profit has dropped 31 per cent because of costs from its takeover of building products and garage door supplier Alesco. Dulux made a net profit of $32.9 million in the six months to March 31, down from $47.9 million in the same period the previous year.

Aussie dollar has slipped below parity in its lowest level since June 2012 and even against the pound it is weakening, a five month low.

Last week figures showed that employment soared by over 50,000 in April. Today, data shows that home loans jumped by the biggest amount in four years. Add in the weaker Aussie dollar – an event welcomed by businesses – and board members may be regretting their decision to trim cash rates. And interestingly Aussies are no longer adding to debt, in fact the pace of debt reduction is the fastest in history.

Home loans rose 5.2% in March. There were 48,071 approvals in the month, compared to 45,695 approvals in February. Economists had expected the number of housing finance commitments to rise by 4.0 per cent in March.

Tomorrows News Today

Chinese April industrial output rises 9.3% from a year earlier.

And in the UK dissent is growing about EU membership. So maybe it will not be Cyprus, Greece, Spain or Portugal that leaves the Zombies first. Maybe it will be the UK! Let’s face it they have never really been that happy with the whole thing.

Budget. Expect the unexpected.