S&P 500 was up by 9.13 points or 0.49% to 1854.29. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen signaled the central bank was likely to stay the course in its current plan to scale back its stimulus measures and said the Fed would be on alert to make sure recent signs of weakness in the U.S. economy are due to cold weather and storms, not signals of a more fundamental slowdown. After more than five years of ultra accommodative policies in the wake of the recession, the Fed is taking the first steps to wind them down. It modestly trimmed a bond-buying program in each of the past two months and, according to forecasts, it plans to raise interest rates some time next year as long as the economy continues to improve.

On Thursday, Yellen reinforced that the Fed expects to continue drawing down the program and shelve the purchases some time in the fall. She repeated the purchases are not on a pre-set course, and the Fed would reconsider its plan if there were a "significant change" to the economic outlook.


S&P Daily Chart (Thomson Reuters)

S&P ASX 200 was down 25.6 points or 0.47% and closed at 5411.44 points. Iron ore prices have tumbled to an eight-month low, putting a squeeze on mining companies' profits as they race to repay massive loans used to expand their operations. A slackening in demand from Chinese steel mills has pressed down iron ore prices in each of the past six trading days. Oil Search (OSH) Ltd expects to double total oil and gas production in 2014 after increasing its full-year 2013 profit. Net profit after tax increased by 17 per cent to $US205.7 million in the year to December 2013, compared with $175.8 million in full-year 2012. Losses from Woolworths’ (WOW) home im­provement unit, including the Masters chain, rose to around $33 million in the December quarter, taking losses for the first half of 2014 to at least $80 million.

Equity Trustees (EQT) posted a 22 per cent hike in profits to $5.4 million for the six months to December following a busy year for the financial services group, which was involved in a bidding war for The Trust Company. Equity Trustees recorded a 16.4 per cent rise in revenue to $26.1 million, while earnings per share lifted from 49.3¢ to 58.3¢. Seven Group (SVW) Holdings showed a 41.7 per cent decline in interim revenue to $1.577 billion on Thursday. The slump was driven by a drop of more than 60 per cent in Caterpillar equipment sales.


ASX 200 Chart (Source - Thomson Reuters)

The top gainers on ASX 200 were:-

Code	Stock Name	Price	Change	% Change
HGG	HENDERSON GROUP PLC.	$4.68	$0.22	4.93%
WHC	WHITEHAVEN COAL LIMITED	$1.86	$0.09	4.79%
VRT	VIRTUS HEALTH LIMITED	$8.10	$0.36	4.65%
TEL	TELECOM CORPORATION OF NEW ZEALAND LIMITED	$2.29	$0.06	2.69%
SEK	SEEK LIMITED	$17.24	$0.39	2.31%

 
 
Stock of the Day – BT Investment Management (BTT)
BT Investment Management is one of Australia’s largest fund managers with in excess of AUD 60 billion in funds under management or FUM. It is responsible for the management of Wholesale and retail funds, as well as managing mandates on behalf of Westpac banking corporation. Westpac spun out BT Investment Management in December 2007 but retains a 62% controlling stake in the business. Westpac is also the largest customer accounting for about one third of FUM. Despite the UK acquisition Australia remains the key source of funds.


Source - BT

The December quarter again highlights the strong contribution made by its UK business, Hambro. With the Australian business relatively flat, Hambro is a key driver of funds under management or FUM and earnings growth, both from management and performance fees. The acquisition has been a huge success for BT, filling in fund flow and performance fee void in Australia. The Hambro acquisition also reduced fund flow reliance on BT’s major shareholder Westpac. A return to net fund inflows in Australia remains elusive but we still expect improvement in the near term.

Group FUM increased AUD 4.0 billion or 6.9% during the quarter to AUD 62.3 billion at 31 December 2013. Positive market revaluations and favorable currency movement were key drivers of FUM growth. The Australian funds experienced another negative quarter reporting outflows of AUD 0.7 billion. This was attributed to institutional cash and fixed interest redemptions of AUD 0.4 billion and AUD 0.3 billion from the ongoing run off of the legacy book. A plus for BT Investment Management was the positive flow of AUD 130 million into wholesale equity income funds.

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