Laggards

Concern about the lack of a Greek debt deal is on the backburner as markets have run on encouraging news. First was the round of strong PMI figures and then Friday saw improvements in US employment. So those extended trends in Europe and the US continue to chug along and the more subdued markets in our time zone are keeping up to some extent. At 2.32 pm, the lift in the Asx 200 is 47 points or 1.1% with the level at 4298, down from early highs of 4310.

I'm hoping for some acceleration in our market although the upcoming results season may not help because it's expected to be subdued. Even if the index is simply able to stick to the uptrend channel then there's room for a couple more up days.

I've had my long position in IPL since just before Christmas and I've been stuck in a slowly turning situation. There was clearly a very large seller over the last couple of weeks and it seemed to be finishing on Friday. I didn't want to bail out on the first sign of strength so I made a point of buying some more at 319 as the stock price moved towards near term resistance. My stop is now at 308, just below the 2 recent minor lows, and I'm hoping for a little surge through 330.

The intraday high in IPL is 324 and the stock is trading at 323, 324. The high of last week was 322 on Monday and since then a minor 1-2-3 buy signal has formed with a trigger at 323.

My other two positions are solidly higher. AGO has reached my first target with a trade above the previous swing high of 333. I'll probably move to a trailing stop here although it depends on the context.

PNA almost reached the previous swing high in morning trade after good drilling news was announced to the market. I'll do much the same here as with AGO.