Thursday 6th Sept 2012

Ok, first the numbers:

Overall market volume was higher at 1,913,583,820 with turnover valued at $5,069,541,652

Sector	Up	Down	Unchanged	Total
Industrials	281	210	149	640
Resources	157	143	147	447
Energy	81	50	47	178
Total	519	403	343	1265

Sectors in the XJO performed as follows:

Security	Description	%	MktCap($)
XDJ	XJO 25 Discretion	1.70%	$     55,516,984,951.63
XEJ	XJO 10 Energy	1.37%	$     83,761,148,134.08
XFJ	XJO 40 Financials	0.36%	$  444,357,505,672.24
XHJ	XJO 35 HealthCare	-0.47%	$     50,164,314,256.05
XIJ	XJO 45 Info Tech	2.27%	$       7,883,592,859.39
XMJ	XJO 15 Materials	1.62%	$  219,826,243,344.27
XNJ	XJO 20 Industrial	1.18%	$     77,506,131,888.32
XPJ	XJO A-REIT	0.97%	$     80,045,016,361.03
XSJ	XJO 30 Staples	0.99%	$     92,141,687,788.92
XTJ	XJO 50 Telecoms	0.06%	$     53,938,076,077.46
XUJ	XJO 55 Utilities	0.17%	$     23,134,317,392.96
XXJ	XJO FinxREIT	0.23%	$  364,312,489,311.21

ASX200

Biggest Losers:

Security	Last	+/-	%
FMG	297	-15	-4.81%
NWH	213	-10	-4.48%
EHL	66.5	-2	-2.92%
TEN	36.5	-1	-2.67%
ARI	57	-1.5	-2.56%
VAH	44	-1	-2.22%
IDL	118.5	-2.5	-2.07%

And the Winners:

Security	Last	+/-	%
LYC	84	24.5	41.18%
BLY	127	16	14.41%
BPT	126	10.75	9.33%
LNC	59	5	9.26%
GBG	30	2.5	9.09%
MML	573	45	8.52%
KAR	434	34	8.50%
ALQ	799	62	8.41%
IMD	126.5	9.5	8.12%
BBG	136.5	9.5	7.48%
QAN	120	7.5	6.67%
MGX	73	4.5	6.57%
SAR	41.5	2.5	6.41%
MDL	548	33	6.41%
AWE	153	9	6.25%
PRU	271	15	5.86%
AGO	127	7	5.83%
SDL	28	1.5	5.66%
AWC	75	4	5.63%
WSA	395	21	5.61%
MIN	680	36	5.59%
PNA	269	14	5.49%
DML	92.5	4.5	5.11%
TRY	441	21	5.00%

Relatively broad based gains today, with almost all sectors showing gains, helathcare was the only laggard – with CSL and RHC dragging on the sector.

Interestingly, the Steel sector – including the iron ore miners, actually had some green on the screen today! We still had the daily FMG flogging – with it getting as low as $2.81 at one point, before rallying somewhat to close down only 4.81%, worst of the XJO.

Unemployment figures were released today – with the surprise being a fall in the headline rate to 5.1%. The problem here is that the fall is attributed to a fall in the participation rate, which tends be be “stickier” and harder to increase when growth accelerates.

Regarding the widely held theory of a Two-Speed Economy, SA, QLD and WA all showed increases in unemployment, which may be attributed to the first effects of the mining slowdown being felt. The impact of the unexpected fall means that there is one less reason for the RBA to cut rates next month, and consequently, the AUD promptly rose – and is now around $1.0228USD. Despite the change, it seems that most are still tipping another cut before the end of the year, however this result may have given the RBA room to pause and reassess in another month.

Rates	August	July	Year     Ago
Unemployment Rate	5.10%	5.20%	5.30%
Full-time Employed	8.07m	8.07m	8.04m
Part-time Employed	3.43m	3.44m	3.4m
Unemployed	622,600	633,200	635,000
Participation Rate	65.00%	65.20%	65.60%
State	August	July	Year Ago
NSW	4.8%	5.2%	5.5%
Vic	5.6%	5.4%	5.2%
Qld	5.9%	5.8%	6.1%
SA	5.7%	5.4%	5.1%
WA	3.9%	3.7%	4.3%
Tas	6.8%	6.5%	5.2%

Other big news includes the facts that BBG announced that they received a $1.45/share takeover – this matches the previous offer that was on the table from TPG.

LYC surged off news that they received approval for a temporary operating license for its Malaysian operations.

Everyone is on hold waiting for the news out of the EU  - Draghi will announce the ECB rates and absent any shocks in the announcement, the important information will be contained within his remarks.

The US Labour Department will release first time applications for unemployment benefits – 373k is expected.

Other major news will likely revolve around US politics, with the Democratic National Party’s Convention continuing.