Foreign Equities	Close	Change	%Change
	Dow Jones (US)	13982	8	0.06
	S&P 500	1520	-2	-0.10
	NASDAQ	3192	-7	-0.21
	FTSE 100 Index	6318	-10	-0.16
	DAX 30	7629	35	0.46
	CAC 40	3667	7	0.18
	Nikkei 225 (Japan)	11408	234	2.09
	HKSE	23382	-63	-0.27
	SSE Composite Index	2422	-11	-0.45
	BSE India Sensex 30	19501	33	0.17
	NZ 50	4214	18	0.42

Monday 18 February 2013 | Close

	Commodities	US$	Close	Change	%Change
	Aluminium	/t	2077	-50	-2.36
	Copper	/t	8085	-87	-1.06
	Nickel	/t	17789	-523	-2.86
	Gold	/oz	1609	-3	-0.16
	Silver	/oz	29.9	-0.1	-0.16
	Oil - West Texas crude	/bbl	96.4	0.0	0.01
	Lead	/t	2371	-50	-2.07
	Zinc	/t	2128	-18	-0.86

Monday 18 February 2013 | Close

	Currency	Close	Pts Change	% Change
	$A vs $US	1.0294	0.0002	0.02
	$A vs GBP	0.6656	-0.0005	-0.08
	$A vs YEN	96.72	-0.20	-0.21
	$A vs EUR	0.7710	0.0008	0.10
	$A vs $NZ	1.2168	0.0003	0.02
	$US vs Euro	0.7488	0.0006	0.08
	$US vs UK	0.6465	-0.0005	-0.08
	$US vs CHF	0.9232	-0.0002	-0.02

US markets were closed for the President's Day holiday.

At 7:45 AM (AEST), the 10-year Treasury note yield was 2.00% and the 5-year yield was 0.86%.

European markets were lower again, as markets had a pause from recent highs. Danish brewer Carlsberg lead the way, reporting disappointing earnings. Sales for the brewer appear to have stalled in key market Russia and remained flat in western Europe. Its shares were 5.8% lower.

The FTSE finished down 10.07 points, or 0.16%, to 6,318.19. The CAC 40 Paris rose 6.67 points, or 0.18%, to 3,667.04 while the German DAX gained 35.22 points, or 0.46%, to 7,628.73.

Rio Tinto weakened 22.50 pence (0.6%) to 3,699.81 pence and BHP Billiton fell 10.50 pence (0.47%) to 2,211.03 pence.

Among bright spots, Natixis rose 22.5% after the bank said it shed a 20 percent stake in BPCE, a network of cooperative lenders which controls it, hoping the move would lead to increased dividends.

Asian stock markets were mostly higher on Monday with the Nikkei rallying as the yen moved lower after a weekend meeting of G20 nations refrained from commenting on Japan's recent policy measures that have weakened its currency.

The Nikkei gained 2%. The Shanghai Composite was down 0.3% while the Hang Seng slipped 0.4%. The Sensex edged up 0.3%.

The yen was down to 94.08 versus the US dollar by mid-day, above the 33-month low of 94.465 struck last week on Monday.

The Nikkei has surged in recent weeks since the country's new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has adopted more aggressive fiscal and monetary policy steps to deal with Japan's deflation.

Stocks gained across sectors with financials, auto shares and real estate among the top gainers.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group advanced 4.5% while automakers Toyota and Honda Motor Company gained 1.4% and 1.9% each, respectively.

The country's top three banks gained after a Nikkei report said they topped the 2012 global rankings for infrastructure and resource-project financing.

Mitsubishi Estate picked up 4.2%.

Index heavyweight Sony was up 1.3% while Sharp Corp. gained about a percent.

In contrast, shares of online game operator DeNA edged down 0.2% after a Nikkei report highlighted the company's disappointing foray into overseas markets.

In Hong Kong, Wal-Mart supplier Li & Fung fell 1.2% after a Bloomberg news report on Friday quoted a Wal-Mart executive as calling the US firm's February sales a "total disaster" in an internal email.

Resources were lower with Jiangxi Copper down almost 3% in both Hong Kong and on the mainland. Aluminum Corporation of China was down 1.4% in Hong Kong while its mainland-listed shares gave up 0.8%.

HSBC edged down 0.2% while ICBC was 0.7% lower.

Top gainers in Mumbai were HDFC, Hindustan Unilever, L&T and SBI, all up in a range between 1% and 1.4%.