Crowe Horwath Australasia Pty : Daily Market Summary

Local stocks had a good start to the week, following Friday night's gains on global equity markets. The local share market gave up some of its early gains in afternoon trade, but remained in positive territory, with the Index heavyweight Telstra and the big banks leading the way. There were mixed results from the sectors; energy posted the biggest profits while consumer staples lagged behind the rest. The Australian dollar depreciated against most major currencies.

Shares rose in Asia, adding to gains chalked up in the wake of last week's stimulus package from the European Central Bank, as investors turned their attention to policy decisions from the Bank of Japan and Federal Reserve.

British equities have edged higher, but underperformed euro-zone shares as a fall in the price of oil weighed on energy firms and counteracted a fading boost to UK-listed miners from well-received Chinese data. US stocks pared early losses to end mixed on Monday, with the Dow logging its highest close of the year despite a drop in oil prices. Crude oil futures fell after Iran said it wasn't ready to agree to an oil output freeze.

The Australian market looks set to open slightly higher with the SPI Futures up 4 points following an unconvincing positive lead from Wall Street where losses in energy shares were offset by consumer discretionary gains and investors laid low ahead of a US Federal Reserve meeting. In local economic news today, the Reserve Bank of Australia is due to release the minutes of its March board meeting. Also, the Australian Bureau of Statistics is expected to release February's new motor vehicle sales figures while the ANZ-Roy Morgan weekly consumer confidence survey is due out.