Australian Stock Market Report – Midday 3-15-13

MID-SESSION REPORT
(12.30pm AEDT)

After three sessions of losses, local stocks are back in the black today, being lifted by another win on Wall Street and strength in European markets.

European stocks rose on more positive economic data, while the US Dow Jones Index closed higher for a 10th consecutive session, finishing at new record highs.

Locally, the banks are lifting the market higher,with Westpac (WBC) the strongest out of the big four.

Miners are generally firmer. After yesterday's 6% drop, shares in iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) are firmer by 0.4% to $3.985.

Other strong performers include CSL Limited (CSL), up almost 2% and Caltex (CTX) firmer by 2.2% to $21.97.

No economic data is released locally today and next week will be absent of top shelf economic news. The highlights of next week's data are the minutes of the last Reserve Bank Board meeting and two speeches by Reserve Bank officials on Tuesday. In the US, a Federal Reserve meeting and housing data are the highlights.

The Australian dollar has had a strong week against all the major currencies, supported by yesterday's spectacular jobs data and further weakness in the UK economy which lifted the Aussie to 28 year, or record highs against the British pound earlier in the week. At lunchtime in the East, the Aussie is worth US103.67c, €79.7c and £0.6873.

On the market overall, a total of 875 million shares have been traded so far, worth $1.78 billion. 442 are up, 350 are down and 311 are unchanged.
Tonight in the US; consumer prices, consumer sentiment and the Empire State manufacturing index are released.

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