Yesterday’s winners and losers
The recovery in bank stocks led the way again yesterday, boosting investor sentiment and paving the way for strong activity in the overall index. The big mining stocks joined the party and began to carry their weight, with RIO and BHP each adding 0.7% for the session. The high-flyer for the day was APN Outdoor Group, which rallied 12% consequent to news that the company received a $1.1Bn bid from JCDecaux Group; while the lowlier for the session was Ramsay Health Care Group, which fell 7.53% after the company slashed its earnings guidance.
The little Aussie battler
The AUD has benefited from a modest pull back in the greenback last night, recovering ~0.2% against its US counterpart to currently trade 0.7378. The USD is showing signs of exhaustion, after a week of strong buying off-the-back-of growing risk aversion and a favourable yield advantage. The AUD/JPY remains relatively weak owing to the same dynamic, seemingly propped up by an intersection of support around 81.10 and 80.95. Further global volatility could place pressure on these levels, and open-up the year-to-date low for the pair at around 80.50.