Market closes slightly firmer
The Australian sharemarket traded in and out of the red before closing in the black as investors took breather following Friday's surge and rallying iron ore futures supported miners.
The S&P/ASX index opened in the black, fell to a 0.5 per cent loss and rallied to close up 11.2 points, or 0.19 per cent, at 5888.7 with mixed performances across most sectors as the stalemate between Greece and the European Union over its bailout conditions continued.
Trade in other Asian markets was also subdued after Chinese lending data on Friday showed a bigger than forecast increase in new loans but a fall in M2 money supply growth to 10.8 per cent form 12.1 per cent, indicating the diminishing path of lending in the world's second biggest economy.
Total aggregate financing of 2.05 trillion yuan ($420 billion) was below the forecast for 2.1 trillion yuan.
The Shanghai composite index was up 0.2 per cent at the close of the ASX.
In Tokyo the Nikkei index was up 0.6 per cent.
Lombard Street Research analyst Diana Choyleva said "dire data" out of China was competing head-on with the Greek political drama as the most destabilising factor for the global economy and financial markets.
"Our final estimate of real GDP growth in Q4 came in even weaker than we initially reckoned at just 1.7 per cent on a quarterly annualised basis, down from 4 per cent in Q3," she said.
The Australian dollar was little changed at US77.85¢ but government 10-year yields rose 4.2 points to 2.543 per cent.
Spot iron ore rose 1.3 per cent to $US63.19 a tonne on Friday and Dalian iron ore futures were up 2.2 per cent today.
Brent crude oil jumped 3.5 per cent to $US61.40 a barrel and gold rose $US5 to $US1232 an ounce.
More to come…
