Support holds? Tue Nov 9

Shell sold 10% of Woodside into the market overnight, reducing its stake to 24%. It's an indicator that Wpl is in play and Bhp was initially weak as it's the obvious buyer. The index was thus hit by a double whammy of two top 20 stocks gapping lower but the Asx 200 held support half a point above 4757 and is just down 3 points at 4775 at 10.51 am.
Awe has finally had some drilling success with gas from shale beds and will be using the now controversial "fracking" technique. It must have been well signposted because the stock has been climbing out of the cellar for the last few sessions. It has gapped another 10.5 this morning to be up at 175. I'm still long some of the stock from 150.

Gold is through USD 1400 and all the pure gold stocks are up. Gold/copper stock Pna is unchanged at 78 though despite continued strength in Ozl. I'm unfazed for now and bought some more at 77 on an opening dip.

Lynas is finally having a (deadcat?) bounce and has risen 6.5 to 125 while Linc is up 11 to 250 where I've sold another 2.5k leaving myself with a balance of 15k.

I've taken Asciano out of my watchlist as it hasn't been a great trading vehicle for me. I've replaced it with Ausenco which is a supplier of expertise to resource companies with engineers, consultants etc. The stock has underperformed this year which is apparently due to their decision to retain staff while awaiting contract wins. Bly is a similar stock, providing drilling services, and has performed strongly over the last few months as resources have rallied with many smaller stocks in the sector able to raise capital in order to go ahead with projects. Here's the Bly daily chart over the last 6 months.

Having disappointed the market earlier in the year and suffered the consequences, Aax may be due to surprise on the upside. I'm long at 256 with a stop at around 230 and the capacity to buy a few more if it drifts into the high 240s/low 250s.

11.54 The Xjo is sitting at 4755, a point above the high. The magic support number is not holding so well now.

1.40 The market is down 36 now at 4742 and there'll have to be a late rally for today's headline to look realistic. I think I'll add a question mark.
Mind you, looking at the daily chart, the index looks pretty good: I was just guilty of fine tuning based on intraday charts. I'm not the only one though, a chartist on the news wire was looking for support to hold at 4757 also. Here's the Xjo daily chart.

I just sold another 2.5k of Lnc at 255. It has had a cracking run. I was looking for 250 initially, not sure now.

This is the weekly chart, we're now through the (adjusted) 2009 high of 253. It's probably heading above 300 in the short to medium term.

4.15 The index closed down 38 at 4741 but it was really about the big end of town with the 20 leaders index down 1% as the banks were weak as was Bhp while Wpl was hammered 6.3% thanks to the large placement. All of my positions went up and it was a good day. I'm hoping I'm out of the woods in Lynas.

Star of the day was Awe, up 24.5 or 15%.