It’s an afternoon of rather mixed trading in Asia. In Australia, shares and the dollar are higher as consumer confidence perked up.
The Westpac/Melbourne Institute index of consumer confidence 5.2 per cent to a 19-month high of 104.3.
■ But the other big influence is likely to have been US futures, which have been rising through the session and are tipping the Wall Street to open 0.36 per cent higher tonight.
■ The S&P/ASX 200 was up 8.5 points, or 0.19 per cent, at 4388.3 at 2.31pm AEDT.
Best sectors were financials (0.70 per cent), utilities (0.50 per cent) and telcos (0.31 per cent), while the weakest were energy (-0.89 per cent), industrials (-0.46 per cent) and healthcare (-0.38 per cent).
■ The dollar was fetching $US1.0445, up from the New York close of $US1.0434.
■ Government bonds were slightly weaker. The yield on the benchmark 10-year bond was up 0.9 basis points at 3.063 per cent, and the yield on the 3-year bond was up 2.3 bips at 2.567 per cent.
■ Around Asia, Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.11 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.73 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite was down 0.16 per cent.
The Australian Financial Review