The Australian sharemarket is mostly flat today as the three-day long rally has finally lost its steam.
The S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) rose an impressive 3.6% between Tuesday and Thursday in what has been one of its strongest weeks of the year. Investors quickly moved on from the recent threats posed by Greece and China to buy into heavily discounted equities.
Today however, the market has risen less than 0.1% to trade at 5669 points which is still a long way off its high of 5996 points, but a far cry from its recent low of 5390.
While the banks have provided plenty of support over the last week, National Australia Bank Ltd. (ASX: NAB) is the only one to record a gain today with the stock up a modest 0.2%. Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ) has fallen 0.7%, while Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) and Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) are down 0.2% each.
Instead, the market is being buoyed by other blue-chip corporations such as Woolworths Limited (ASX: WOW), CSL Limited (ASX: CSL) and Woodside Petroleum Limited (ASX: WPL). The supermarket giant is up 1.2%, as is Woodside Petroleum, while CSL rose 0.4%. BHP Billiton Limited (ASX: BHP) is also up 0.3% despite a slow start to the session.
Although investors who have remained on the sidelines over the last week have missed out on some impressive gains, it's by no means too late to get invested. A number of high-quality companies are still trading at compelling prices, making now an excellent time to start building some long-term positions.
While there are some opportunities presenting themselves at the upper end of the market, there are plenty more at the lower end which could generate fantastic returns over the coming years.
