(IBTimes) - Lunchtime REPORT (1pm AEST)
Yesterday, the Australian share market closed higher boosted
by an ease in Chinese monetary policy, with the All Ordinaries
Index (XAO) up 9 points to 4,351 points.
Overnight European and we markets continued to lose ground,
once again Greek political concerns and weakness in industrial
growth in the Eurozone hit stocks. US markets also held back by
news that Greece's leading political parties still have not been
able to form a new government and if a decision is not made by
Friday morning Sydney time, this will mean the Greek people will
have to go back to the polls. Banking stocks continued to slide
in the US as the fall out for the JP Morgan trading debacle still
haunts the market. Falls in commodity prices, especially oil,
pushed miners and oil players into the red and housing stocks
also lost ground.
The Australian stocks exchange leading index, the All
Ordinaries Index (XAO), fell over 1% in the first hour of trade
and by lunch time losses in all sectors had pushed the index was
still off 41 points to 4,310 points.
Energy stocks led the falls after the US$ oil price fell below
US$95 a barrel overnight, the oil price continued to trade lower
in early Asian trade and at lunch hit US$ 94.18 a barrel, oil and
gas producers fell with, Woodside Petroleum Limited (WPL) gave
back 2.48% to $32.66 and Origin Energy Limited (ORG), one of the
better performers in a negative market, only down 0.46% to $13.03
and Oil Search Limited (OST) off 2.4% to $6.80.
The major food and beverage retailers moved higher this
morning as the fall in the Australian dollar and defensive
trading helped boost prices. Woolworths Limited (WOW) added 0.48%
to $27.10 and Wesfarmers Limited (
WES
) , owner of Coles, up over 0.3% to $30.94. today Coco-Cola
Amatil (
CCL
) held its annual general meeting (
AGM
) the company said it expects its first half year Underlying Net
Profit to grow by about 4%-5%. This helped the share price move
higher in morning trade up 1.65 to $12.94. The drink maker and
distributer also said it is interested in re-entering the beer
market with a new deal to distribute brands in the Asian
region.
The banking sector, the S&P/ASX 200 Financials sector was
down over 0.35% in early trade. Westpac Banking Corporation (
WBC
), off 0.8% to $21.87. Commonwealth Bank of Australia (
CBA
) added over 0.5% to $52.47. National Australia Bank Limited's
(NAB) down by 0.2% to $24.75. Australia and New Zealand Banking
Group Limited (ANZ) was off nearly 1% to $22.04. The insurers
made back some ground, QBE Insurance Group Limited (QBE) added
another 1.35% to $13.48 and Suncorp Group Limited (SUN) added
1%.
Base metal prices were lower in the London Metals Exchange
(LME) overnight. Today the S&P/ASX 200 Materials sector had
lost 2 % by lunchtime. Rio Tinto Limited's (RIO) share price lost
1.7% to $59.93. BHP Billiton Limited (BHP) also lower, now at
$2.55 to $33.58 and Fortescue Metals Group Limited (FMG) gave
back 5.8% to $5.03, its lowest prices since the start of February
this year.
Elsewhere, Lend Lease limited (LLC) gave back 0.79% to $7.49
and rival, Leighton Holdings Limited's (LEI) share price came off
0.96% to $18.59.
Defensive stocks were the real winners in morning trade with
Telstra Corporation Limited (TLS) one of the best performers and
most highly traded stocks up 2.75% to $3.74.
Energy retailer AGL Energy Limited (AGK) added 0.89% to $14.76
while Hastings Diversified Utilities Fund (HDF) added 12.32% to
$2.37 after the company said it received a conditional takeover
offer valuing the HDF at $1.25 billion or 42.35 a share (less
adjustments for distributions paid). The offer came from Pipeline
Partners Australia Pty Limited, a consortium which includes
Caisse de dépot et placement du Québec (CDPQ) and the
Hastings-managed Utilities Trust of Australia (UTA). Spark
Infrastructure Group (SKI) also higher in early trade, up
1.69%.
The Australian dollar (AUD) back below parity with the US
dollar and lower against the Euro and Pound in morning trade. The
AUD is currently trading at US$ 0.9964 and €77.69 cents.
[Kick off your trading day with our newsletter]
More from IBT Markets:
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox daily
Original Source:
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/341008/20120514/australian-stock-market-report-midday-5-15.htm
For more information, go to
www.ibtimes.com