Shareswatch Australia

It’s now been a year since I last reviewed the Shareswatch Random Stocks Portfolio during which time the S&P/ASX 200 has slid  from around 4700 points to where it is today at around 4200 points.  Again it will be interesting to see how the portfolio has fared against the ASX 200 Index and if there are any surprises in terms of how the stocks have performed.

Australian stocks seem to be enjoying a broad rally today and I suspect the mainstream financial media will churn out bullish sounding headlines when the market closes.  But if we step back and review a few charts it’s pretty clear that the Australian stock market is stuck in a rut and I don’t see it breaking free any time soon.

Almost daily the mainstream finance & business media churn out headlines regarding the stock market that would imply that stocks are either surging to new highs or falling to new lows.  The truth however is much more boring and so today I will try and have an emotion-free look at what the S&P/ASX 200 Index has been doing over the last few years & months.

It may appear to some investors that the Australian stock market has started 2012 in the same volatile manner as we have become use to over the last few years, however trading so far this year has been fairly calm.  An optimist might believe that this is an indication that the markets are finally settling down though I fear we are simply enjoying a period of calm before we enter a stormy phase again.

Recently the markets appear to have settled somewhat and the Australian stock market has steadily been heading higher so far in 2012. Could we be seeing the early signs of another bull market taking hold or are we about to see another sharp correction take the ASX All Ordinaries back down towards 4000 and perhaps lower?

Recently the markets appear to have settled somewhat and the Australian stock market has steadily been heading higher so far in 2012. Could we be seeing the early signs of another bull market taking hold or are we about to see another sharp correction take the ASX All Ordinaries back down towards 4000 and perhaps lower?

At the start of last year I did not update my Australian stock market trends simply because I thought the market was basically going nowhere. This year however I feel it is worth looking at some interesting sectors again in an attempt to pick out some areas where investors might be able to find bargains and position themselves for the next bull market.

The ASX All Ordinaries Index and S&P/ASX 200 Index finished much lower than I expected in 2011, so this makes me somewhat reluctant to go on record and make an Australian stock market forecast for 2012. However the process of looking at the various economic data and trying to guess where the market will end is a useful one, so foolishly I will outline once again my Australian stock market forecast for the year ahead.

If you were to believe some of the ramblings on mainstream media sites you might get the impression that Australian stocks have on occasions bounced back strongly and that in some way this is a reflection of how well the Australian economy is doing. However the reality is that the Australian stock market has been trending downwards since July and many stocks are simply limping from one week to the next.

Prices for hard commodities such as copper, iron ore & coal have risen strongly over the past decade and are now trading well above their long term historical averages.  This in turn drove the ASX All Ordinaries Index to a bull market high in 2007 and has helped put some support under the market ever since.  But is it realistic to expect high commodities prices will keep propping up the Australian stock market?

In the midst of all this market madness it might be useful for investors to sit back and look at what various sectors of the Australian stock market have being doing over the last ten years to see if we can spot any emerging trends.  We all know for example that the resources sector has been generally kind to investors over the last few years but will it continue to be a strong performer in the years ahead?

Often it is useful to step away from looking at the daily movements of the stock market and review what has happened over the last decade.  This won’t exactly tell investors which stocks will do well during the next 10 years, but it does show which trends have moved the market to where it is now.

The Australian stock market is still a long way below the last market high reached in 2007 and so I can’t help wondering when we might see the ASX All Ordinaries reach a new market high.  Perhaps it will just be a few years time before the market recovers lost ground, or maybe it’s going to be a long wait before share market investors see stocks once again post gains year after year.

At the start of this year I had a somewhat bearish view of how the Australian stock market would perform during 2011 but the slump over the last few months has caught me by surprise.  Even stocks in the mining sector are being dragged down by global economic concerns at the moment and I don’t expect things to improve much this year.

It has been quite some time since I have looked at the Shareswatch Random portfolio of Australian stocks simply because the Australian stock market has been basically going nowhere for a year or more. So it will be interesting now to see how this collection of S&P/ASX stocks has been tracking to determine if it is tracking the performance of the ASX 200 Index.

Despite the best efforts of many analysts to talk up a stock market rally the Australian share market continues to move sideways with the ASX All Ordinaries and S&P/ASX 200 both unable push clear of the 5000 level.  But should this worry investors or is the market now simply reverting back to the long term trend?  Also what factors might be at play that are preventing a major market rally?