Shareswatch Australia

The Australian stock market has posted some good gains recently with the ASX All Ordinaries Index and S&P/ASX 200 Index both closing above 5100 yesterday. Instead of the markets showing some weakness as I expected, they appear to be rallying even despite falls in commodities prices and warning signs that the Chinese economy may start to slow again. This makes it difficult to get a feel for where the markets might be heading and economic stimulus measures in the United States, China and Japan complicate the outlook even further.

It has been quite a week with investors needing to digest the slump in gold prices and also the weakening of commodity prices as well.  Although I have been warning about both a gold and commodities bubble for some time,  I have to admit I didn’t expect the gold price to fall back quite this much, this early.

Since mid 2012 the Australian stock market has been on a roll with the ASX All Ords & S&P/ASX 200 both closing today above 5100 points as the bull market continues. When I last looked at a few 52 week high and low stock prices the All Ords/ASX 200 were around 4300 so not surprisingly most stocks are now trading much higher and investors generally should be a happier lot than they were back then. However some stocks have actually fared relatively poorly since October 2011 and this may help us understand what might be moving the stock market at the moment.

WorleyParsons Ltd (ASX: WOR), in line with a recent theme, announced–on the same day it revealed results for the first half of fiscal 2013–a new contract award, this one to provide engineering services at the Fort Hills oil sands project. The work, which will begin immediately, will generate AUD140 million of revenue for WorleyParsons. Fort Hills is jointly owned by Suncor Energy Inc (TSX: SU, NYSE: SU), Total SA (France: FP, NYSE: TOT) and Teck Resources Ltd (TSX: TCK/B, NYSE: TCK).

The apparent end of the biggest resource boom in a century in Australia, occasionally called China’s commodity quarry, has drawn downbeat forecasts from politicians and analysts, but there are some indications that signal all is not over for the lucky country.

Last week was a glittering week for diamonds. As preparations for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee were underway in London, the Martian Pink, a 12.04 carat diamond, went under the hammer at a record HK$135 million (US$17 million) at a Christie’s Hong Kong jewellery sale.

Over the last few months it has been quite remarkable to witness how the believers in Ken Henry’s ‘Golden Age’ have started to sound a little downbeat as the economic slowdown in China can no longer be ignored.  Therefore it seems like an appropriate time to try and assess what impact this slowdown is having (and may have) on the Australian economy and review the charts for a few important economic indicators.

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.

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.

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.

So far 2011 has not been a good year for the Australian stock market despite the ASX All Ordinaries  & S&P/ASX 200 flirting with the 5000 points level earlier in the year.  Over recent months the market has fallen back into bear market territory so a review at this stage of some 52 week stock price highs & low may give us an insight into how the market is tracking.

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.

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.

Now that the ASX All Ordinaries Index has broken through and closed above 5000, more than a few market watchers seem to be quite bullish about the prospects for the Australian stock market.  But will the share market rally from here or will another correction roll along and push it below 5000 yet again?

After some promising gains in the first part of 2010 the Australian stock market closed down today to finish the year basically unchanged. In plain English the share market essentially did nothing in 2010 and so if the Australian economy is really booming, then this is not being reflected in the performance of the ASX All Ordinaries or S&P/ASX 200.