By Robb M. Stewart
MELBOURNE, Australia--Australian equities logged a third
straight daily gain on Tuesday, edging marginally higher thanks to
buying of bank shares.
The local market got off to a sluggish start after the Dow Jones
Industrial Average edged higher to a fresh record and the Nasdaq
Composite Index breached 4000 for the first time in 13 years but
failed to hold the level. Momentum built up in the afternoon was
lost in the final few minutes of trading, with mining and
industrial shares, in particular, falling.
"Following uninspiring leads offshore, Australian equities
operated in much of the same vein," said Betty Lam, sales trader at
CMC Markets in Sydney, adding trading volumes for the day were
fairly thin.
There was little major corporate news or economic data for
investors to latch on to, although the Australian dollar did pick
up after Phillip Lowe, deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of
Australia, dampened speculation that exchange rate intervention
might be imminent.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 finished up almost 0.1% at 5357,
having been as high as 5357.1 earlier in the day.
High-yielding banks were stronger, with Australia & New
Zealand Banking, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and
Westpac, between 0.5% and 0.9% higher for the day.
"Time and time again we see local investors taking advantage of
any price pullbacks in the major banks and topping up, so to
speak," said Stan Shamu, market strategist at IG in Melbourne.
Mr. Shamu said some major resources shares, however, prevented
the wider market from extending gains.
Santos rose 0.6%, Aurora Oil & Gas climbed 1.4% and Oil
Search advanced 1% in a recovery from declines a day earlier.
But big mining companies lost ground, with BHP Billiton closing
0.2% in the red, Rio Tinto falling 0.6% and fellow iron-ore
producer Fortescue Metals Group dropping 1.4%. Gold producer
Newcrest Mining fell 1.9%, adding to Monday's 2.8% drop.
The Australian dollar rose to about US$0.92 after Reserve Bank
of Australia's Philip Lowe said the threshold for the central bank
intervening in the foreign exchange market was fairly high and was
trading at US$0.9194 late. The currency had fallen more than three
U.S. cents since RBA Governor Glenn Stevens last Thursday said the
bank was "open-minded" about the prospect of intervention.
Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com