ASX higher with banks leading; iron ore prices keep softening

The S&P/ASX 200 has held onto gains and remains 0.7 per cent, or 46 points, higher at 6645. However, it has dropped from a high of 6661 points reached in the first two hours of trading.

The financials sector is adding the most points with a gain of 0.8 per cent, but the best performing sector is real estate, up 1.8 per cent. This is thanks to gains of 2.3 per cent in Goodman Group and 3.1 per cent in Stockland after this mornings announcement of a logistics property joint venture with JP Morgan.

Consumer discretionary, energy, healthcare, consumer staples, and information technology were also out-performing.

However, materials are dragging, down 0.3 per cent. Within the sector gold miners are lower and heavyweights like BHP are down 0.7 per cent, South32 is down 0.6 per cent, and BlueScope Steel is down 0.6 per cent. But James Hardie, Fortescue, Amcor, and Orica are higher.

The ASX is outperforming major regional Asian markets with Japan’s Nikkei and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng up 0.1 per cent and mainland China’s CSI300 up 0.3 per cent today.