Index Hits Record, Thanks To Futures
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday August 23, 2000
Buoyed by large buy orders for share price index futures contracts from Ord Minnett and UBS Warburg, shares surged to a record close yesterday, sending many stocks to new highs.
After stagnating for much of the day, the sharemarket kicked higher after the SPI orders were booked at 2.30pm, rising 14 to 3312.9.
``As we attempted to fill those orders in a very thin market, we had to pay up," said Ord Minnett associate director Mr Richard Coppleson. ``As the SPI went up, the market picked itself up and triggered a whole host of index arb[itrage] buying."
Brokers also attributed the rally to expectations that the US Federal Reserve would not raise interest rates. ``People are taking the view that nothing is going to happen, which is being built into share prices, particularly the financial stocks," said Macquarie Equities associate director Ms Lucinda Chan. ``The financials are really holding the market up."
CBA spearheaded the market's rise, soaring 63c to an all-time high of $28.73. Over 3 million shares were traded after the bank announced it would acquire the remaining 25 per cent of ASB Group that it does not own. The bank has underperformed its peers over the past few months.
Macquarie Bank also found record territory, jumping 66c to $28.20, benefiting from improving confidence over its earnings outlook now that prospects for financial markets are more buoyant than when it released its year to March results. NAB rose 23c to $25.75, Westpac 9c to $12.47 and ANZ 6c to $12.94.
After bottoming at $20.30 on Monday under pressure from its buyback, Lend Lease bounced 29c yesterday to $20.59. Ord Minnett, the biggest buyer on the day, values it at $21.02 but expects it to reach $23.50 to $24.
Strong oil prices continued to drive sentiment in resources, with Woodside surging 71c to a record close of $14.39. WMC was up 13c to $8.06 and Rio Tinto 11c to $26.66. But BHP fell 25c to $19.35. Almost 12 million MIM shares were traded as the stock rose 6c to $1.09.
Flight Centre was another record breaker, rocketing 74c higher to $23.49, on optimism over its earnings prospects.
Results also set the tone for the market yesterday, with any abnormalities punished. Melbourne IT was savaged after it warned its core business of domain name registration would weaken in the current quarter. It fell 31 per cent to $5.99.
Hutchison fell 13c to $2.77 after a loss of $22.3 million for the six months to June 30.
Cochlear rose 30c to $27.50 on news it lifted net profit 24 per cent and is tipping similar growth in 2001.
SecureNet rose another 73c to $10.73 on the back of its financial results.
Solution 6 fell 29c to $3.15 after Telstra decided not to proceed with the sale of its e-business assets. Telstra fell 8c to $7.20 and C&W Optus was also down 8c to $4.47.
FACT FILE
The All Ords hit a record close on the back of futures plays by Ord Minnett and UBS Warburg.
CBA, Macquarie Bank, Woodside and Flight Centre reached new heights.
Melbourne IT plummeted 31pc after warning its core domain name registration business was set to weaken
MONEY $A/USc 59.03 +0.05 TWI 53.40 +0.10 90-day bank bills 6.53 +0.01 3-year bonds 6.34 -0.02 10-year bonds 6.24 stdy YESTERDAY'S MOVES Rises 500 Falls 517 Steady 352 Sept SPI 3382.0 +35.0 ASX 200 3353.4 +14.5 Biz.com Tech 4465.7 stdy All Industrials 5773.4 +23.4 All Mining 714.7 +8.6 Volume Value 498.7m 1.45bn POPULAR STOCKS Telstra 7.20 -8.0 BHP 19.35 -25.0 C'wlth Bank 28.73 +63.0 Woolworths 6.38 +8.0 Qantas 4.17 stdy AMP 17.75 +4.4 NRMA 2.97 +2.0 WINNERS Securenet Ltd +7.30% Evans Deakin Inds +6.26 Sthrn Pac Pet +6.21 MIM Hldgs Ltd +5.83 APN News & Media +5.26 Woodside Pet +5.22 Brierley Invest +5.08 Perpet Trust Aust +4.55 Caltex Aust Ltd +4.43 Timbercorp Ltd +4.04 LOSERS Melbourne IT Ltd -31.14% Solution 6 -8.43 Libertyone Ltd -5.00 Hutchison Telecom -5.00 Toll Hldgs Ltd -4.35 Challenger Int'l -3.94 TV & Media Srvcs -3.55 OPSM Protector -3.47 Nat Foods Ltd -3.24 Coates Hire Ltd -2.86
© 2000 Sydney Morning Herald