Caution reigned on the local sharemarket on Monday with most regional bourses closed, but early losses were wiped out as gains in big miners offset falls in the banks.
The S&P/ASX 200 index plunged to a low of 4925.9 points on a poor lead from Wall Street within the first half hour, but in the absence of Chinese share trading due to the Lunar New Year holiday the focus shifted to the local earnings season.
The benchmark ended down a mere 0.02 per cent, or less than 1 point, to 4975.4. The broader All Ordinaries ended 4 points down at 5022.1.
"The index seems to have found a new range of 4800 to 5000," noted IG chief market strategist Chris Weston.
A dramatic fall in LinkedIn shares, which plunged 43 per cent on disappointing earnings results the company blamed on global market conditions on Friday, dragging the Nasdaq down 3 per cent, set a negative tone for the local bourse on Monday.
Rising fears of a US interest rate rise after employment data on Friday showed a surprisingly strong rise in hourly wages contributed to the Wall Street selloff.
But with China and Hong Kong markets as well as a plethora of other regional bourses closed for holidays, the local focus was on company profit results, Patersons economist Tony Farnham said.
"The reasonable earnings and I think too the degree of confidence that some of the numbers this week will be quite OK [is helping]," Mr Farnham said.
The headline acts this week include Commonwealth Bank, due on Wednesday, and Rio Tinto.
Rio Tinto, due to report its full year results on Thursday, is expected to review its progressive dividend policy and even cut its dividend as early as August. Its shares still rose 2.2 per cent to $42.53 as commodity prices remained stable.
BHP Billiton climbed 1.1 per cent higher to $16.37 and South 32 rose 3.5 per cent to $1.19. Fortescue Metals Group however fell 3.4 per cent to $1.83, despite another rise in iron ore prices on Friday to above $US45 a tonne. The commodity is now up more than 15 per cent on its mid-January low.
ANZ Banking Group was the biggest drag on the index on Monday by weighting, falling 1.5 per cent to $23.73 amid expectations the corporate regulator will take action against a group of traders from the bank in relation to alleged manipulation of the bank bill swap rate.
National Australia Bank fell 1.2 per cent to $26.15, Commonwealth Bank of Australia fell 0.3 per cent to $76.38 and Westpac Banking Group eased 0.3 per cent to $30.26.
Wesfarmers rose 0.8 per cent to $43.25 while Woolworths finished unchanged at $23.76. Telstra added 0.4 per cent to $5.67.
The companies reporting their half-yearly profit results included JB Hi-Fi. Its shares ended down 0.5 per cent to $22 after the retailer delivered a 7.5 per cent increase in net profit to $95.2 million and upgraded its full-year guidance. The shares had rallied over the past month in anticipation of a strong result.
Meanwhile, Ansell shares rose 7.3 per cent to $16.14 after the company reported a 21.6 per cent fall in net profit in the first half, a result it warned the market about last week.
The best performers on the index were under fire law firm Slater & Gordon, up 7.6 per cent to 63.5¢ and Ansell.
The worst performing stock was OzForex Group, down a staggering 42.1 per cent to $1.79 after it ended its talks with takeover suitor Western Union and cut its earnings guidance.
Across the sectors, utilities was the strongest, up 1.3 per cent, followed by materials, up 1.2 per cent. Information technology was the worst, down 1.3 per cent, followed by financials, down 0.5 per cent.
