Shares jump as investors find relief

On Wednesday 21 December 2011, 14:10 EST

The local share market has soared following broad gains on overseas markets overnight.
Spain eased investor fears with a strong result from a bond auction that saw its borrowing costs fall, while a key survey of German business sentiment posted a rise.
And a large increase in new housing construction in the US bolstered trade on Wall Street.
At 11.15am (AEDT) the benchmark ASX 200 index was 2.3 per cent higher at 4,147 and the All Ordinaries Index was up 2.2 per cent at 4,198.
Materials and IT stocks were leading the gains, with 186 shares on the benchmark index in positive territory.
Beadell Resources was the top gainer, up 12.9 per cent and gold producer Oceanagold was up 10.7 per cent.
The big banks were all up around 2 per cent, with NAB leading the pack up 2.8 per cent.
The major miners were seeing similar gains, with both BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto up around 2.7 per cent.
Embattled surf-wear retailer Billabong was staging a moderate recovery, up 2 per cent after shedding around 50 per cent of its value so far this week.
The Australian dollar remains above parity with its US counterpart and has been rising steadily throughout the morning.
It was buying 101 US cents, 78.6 Japanese yen, 77 euro cents, 64.4 British pence and $NZ1.31.
Spot gold rose overnight and was buying $US1,621.48 an ounce.
In Singapore Tapis crude closed higher at $US114.31 a barrel and West Texas Crude also was higher at $US97.55 a barrel.

10 comments

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Johan the sailor man 38 minutes ago Report Abuse
Lucky Report $ = 1.0118.
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Lozza 48 minutes ago Report Abuse
Yes Ray, thats right, if you leave to the other so called financial men (really what I call money managers) then you wont see any returns at all. As it is, they are losing not gaining. So, your principal is making less overall. If this keeps up for a number of years, there will be nothing left of our savings.
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that fellow thursday 1 hour ago Report Abuse
One minute our pundits and analysts are telling us the world is going to explode due to the gigantic debts it has run up; the next minute, it is going to do just fine thank you very much. Well, which one is it?
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OB 1 hour ago Report Abuse
The local share market is all manipulated by greed...the average public are the only losers.
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Nathan 2 hours ago Report Abuse
You have a news headline saying "Women killed by man cleaning guy" but it should read "Women killed by man cleaning gun". Please correct this spelling error. Your sincerely. Editor in Chief
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Amazed 2 hours ago Report Abuse
large superfunds buy into shares ,property ,bonds ,cash etc.I think these are topped up with the weekly contributions in buying more ,but unlike the Dodgy brothers ,i dont think they buy and sell ,just keep adding ,so if markets slump so does super.
If you played your own super and changed things when you thought a slump was on the way,then got back on an up you have a chance.
Super may drop 30% over 2 years then go ip 20% a year for a few years.Its a long term deal
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Johan the sailor man 2 hours ago Report Abuse
The real reason that super funds are struggling is because they are run by unimaginative accountants.
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Ray Jamieson 2 hours ago Report Abuse
Meister, your super is falling because you are trusting it to a fund manager who you will never know, who will never meet you or know you other than as a number. Take charge of it personally and manage it yourself. If you don't know how, LEARN! When I became a financial adviser, I found that most industry super funds are barely keeping up with inflation over the last decade, it doesn't work unless you take charge of it!
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Col 3 hours ago Report Abuse
Hey "Meister" your Super is falling because of fund manager greed!
Ever heard of a fund manager reducing fees in line with falling fund balances?
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Meister 3 hours ago Report Abuse
Why is my superannuation still falling?
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Tuesday, 20 December 2011