Flying Kangaroo soars as the market retreats

Aussie stocks took a breather on Thursday, breaking a three session winning streak. The local bourse switched back into teetering at the 5900 level following a 40 point pull-back as the week’s trading profits materialised.

The earning’s avalanche continued with familiar household names up for analysis. Qantas lead the charge, comfortably beating analyst expectation to deliver an interim profit of $367M. This was an impressive comeback from a loss of $252M for the corresponding first half the previous year. The flying kangaroo enjoyed the benefits of lower oil prices and cost cutting with the stock trading up almost 5% to fresh highs of $3.00.

In afternoon trading, profit taking had infiltrated across all major sectors with the exception of energy. Energy stocks enjoyed a 1% resurgence in Brent oil overnight. The session’s thin volumes hinted at fatigued traders following this week’s widely reported seven year highs. Overnight US unemployment claims may set the tone as to whether traders may revisit the recent 7 year highs.

The local currency reached intra month highs overnight, breaching $0.79 following a weaker greenback and favourable manufacturing numbers out from China. This was short lived, as the Aussie dollar shed over a third of a cent following discouraging private business investment numbers, which returned a steeper decline than the market had expected. Currently the AUD resumes its position back in mid-$0.78 ranges