The current bull run in the market, led by bank shares, will be tested this morning by the ANZ full year result.
In fact the ANZ leapt yesterday to an all time high at the end of trading as analysts forecast a solid result and a higher dividend.
According to the AFR this morning, the big four banks market values topped a combined $400 billion yesterday, led by the Commonwealth with $124 billion.
There’s an awful lot of risk for investors, if the banks stumble.
Overnight share price futures say the market will start all but flat – US markets were weak to lower, European markets were mostly weaker with the exception of London. Asian markets were bullish, led by Australia and Japan.
In fact overnight the Dow fluctuated from losses, to small gains and then ended on a weak note. The Nasdaq was also weaker as well ahead of Apple’s 4th quarter results.
But the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index finished with a 2.3 point gain – tiny – but enough to give it its 8th daily gain in nine.
The Aussie dollar regained the 96 US cent mark in offshore trading, only to slip back under in ate trading and end around 95.70c.
Gold and oil ended trading marginally higher, but providing no real leads for local markets.
It will be the banks that will again dominate trading today, as they have done for much of the last couple of weeks.
The market has closed at a five year high yesterday ahead of the release of the full year results from the NAB and the ANZ.
At the close, the ASX200 index was 55.1 points, or 1.02%, higher at 5,441.4. The All Ordinaries index was up 51.6 points, or 0.96%, at 5,437.3.
The day saw the ninth gain in the past 10 days. Today will be tougher, unless the ANZ result is stronger than expected.
The ANZ was up 58 cents at $33.24, the National Australia Bank rose 60 cents to $36.68, the Commonwealth Bank added $1.12 at $77.40, and Westpac climbed 25 cents to $34.61.
The National Australia Bank follows the ANZ in releasing its release full year results on Thursday.
In the resources, BHP Billiton was up 44 cents at $37.85, Rio Tinto rose 61c to $64.38 and Fortescue Metals rose 21 cents to $5.42.
GPT Group units finished unchanged at $3.78 despite a solid third quarter update yesterday.
The company said that higher house prices, lower interest rates and an improvement in business confidence after the federal election would lead to better Christmas trading for retailers and office landlords.
CEO, Michael Cameron said while data was yet to emerge, sentiment among his group’s tenants was more positive than in the past few years.
The improved sentiment led Mr Cameron to upgrade the 2014 earnings-per-share guidance to 6%, from the previous 5%. GPT has a December 31 balance date.
”Factors influencing the upgrade include the continuation of the share buyback in the third quarter, the cost of debt forecast being reduced and more clarity on the net operating income of the portfolios,’‘ Mr Cameron said.
GPT reported a fall in net profit for the June 30 first half due to a lower valuation of some assets.
GPT YTD – GPT shares up solid update
