ASX 200 cracks 5900 briefly as APRA spoils the banks party. Index closes at 5887 down 31 as fatigue and a late sell off takes its toll. Telstra and Utilities prove to be standouts. Asian markets rose Japan up 0.42% and China up 0.40%. AUD 76.47c and US Futures down 14 points.

Few stats to end the week:

• ASX 200 up from 5753 to 5865 a rise of 129 points or 1.95%.
• For the quarter the ASX 200 is up from 5665 or 3.5%.
• The Dow is up 4.9% so far. FTSE 1200 is up 4.4%.
• AUD has moved from 72.12c to 76.44c.

And the winner is…

India the best performing market this year.

STOCKS AND SECTORS

• Banks and Financials had the wind taken from their sails after APRA moves before the market this morning. The Big Bank Basket closed down at $186.13 with regionals outperforming Bank of Queensland (BOQ) +1.00% and Bendigo and Adelaide (BEN) +0.91%. Insurers trod water whilst Macquarie Group (MQG) +0.17%. REITs eased led by Scentre Group (SCG) -2.05% and Goodman Group (GMG) -2.40%.
• Miners had a mixed day, Metals X (MLX) +9.86% whilst BHP -0.12% and RIO -0.05%%. Base metals mixed Oz Minerals (OZL) +1.39%, Independence Group (IGO)+1.70%.
• Gold stocks weaker with Newcrest (NCM) -0.58%, Evolution Mining (EVN) -1.87% and Gold Road (GOR) -3.51%.
• Energy stocks failed miserably despite a rising WTI Crude price. Woodside (WPL) -0.77%, Oil Search (OSH) -0.96% and Santos (STO) -0.78% Karoon Gas (KAR) +9.70% recovered from yesterdays’ drubbing as the sale of the Brazilian assets fell through.
• Industrials came off the recent run. Brambles (BXB) -%, Qantas (QAN) -2.26% Als (ALQ) -2.07% and Wesfarmers (WES) -0.92%. Our triumvirate of the three retail underperformers gained with JB Hi-Fi (JBH) +0.41%, Harvey Norman (HVN) +1.34% except Flight Centre (FLT) -0.17%.
• Healthcare saw losses in Nanosonics (NAN) -3.12%, Star pharma (SPL) -1.47% and Sirtex (SRX) -1.00%.
• IT and Telco had a good day. Telstra (TLS) +0.87% finally started to rise with Nextdc (NXT) +3.03% and Nearmap (NEA) +6.80%.
• Speculative stock of the day: Prana Biotech (PBT) +36.54% after presenting at the 13^th International Conference for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s PBT434 shows a strong toxicology profile and favourable therapeutic margin.

CORPORATE NEWS

• Quintis (QIN) -4.59% has appointed deputy chairman Julius Matthys as its interim chief executive.

BOND CORNER

ECONOMIC NEWS

• The ACCC has rejected an application by the banks to collectively negotiate with technology giant Apple which will stop the banks from introducing their own mobile applications on devices like the iPhone and Apple
• Moves from APRA this morning to keep houses prices under control. It is limiting the flow of new interest-only lending to 30% of total new residential mortgage lending, from 40%. APRA has placed strict internal limits on the volume of interest-only lending at loan-to-value ratios (LVRs) above 80%.
• Looks like the local economy is heading for a record of 25 years without a recession. According to figures households now have a record $11.7 trillion in wealth last quarter as cash holdings topped a trillion dollars for the first time ever. That is almost $387,000 for every man woman and child in the country.

ASIAN NEWS

Chinese Economic News

• Activity in China’s manufacturing sector expanded at the fastest pace in five years with the PMI rising to 51.8 in March from 51.6.
• The official non-manufacturing PMI stood at 55.1, compared with the previous month’s reading of 54.2. The reading was the highest since May 2014.

Japanese Economic News

• Consumer prices, excluding fresh food, climbed 0.2% in February from a year earlier (forecast 0.2%).
• Household spending declined 3.8% in February (forecast -1.7%).
• The unemployment rate was 2.8% (forecast 3%) in February.
• Industrial production rose 2.0% in February from the previous month (forecast 1.2%).

EUROPE AND US

• Lloyds of London may become Lloyds of Brussels as the insurance market has plans to open a European hub in Brussels. The company hopes to have the office open by 2019. Lloyd’s doesn’t underwrite insurance itself, but rather through about 100 registered syndicates. About 11 percent of its volume come from EU countries outside of the U.K.
• The Macquarie (MQG) Guys are good. The bank sold its remaining Thames Water investment for between GBP1-1.5bn to the Canadian Pension Fund, Omers and the Kuwait Investment This weekend in the UK the government will be opening the water market to competition. More than 1.2m businesses, charities and public sector bodies will be able to choose their supplier rather than rely on a supplier with a regional monopoly. The Government is now looking at opening the market for domestic customers something that could save households up to GBP3bn in a best-case scenario.

And finally…..

Doctor: “I’m sorry but you suffer from a terminal illness and have only 10 to live.”

Patient: “What do you mean, 10? 10 what? Months? Weeks?!”

Doctor: “Nine.”

 

Have a great weekend

Clarence

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