The Australian share market made a solid recovery today managing to just push into positive territory before the close.
The morning’s lows were spurred by tumbling stocks in China but towards midday optimism returned and into the afternoon the Shanghai index pushed back into the black, the mining sector led the gains and ignored a big slide in the iron ore price overnight.
The recovery came amid a read on the unemployment rate from the ABS which shows the jobless rate at 6 per cent after the May figure was revised down to 5.9 per cent.
The S&P/ASX 200 index closed 1 points up to finish at 5,471.
The value of trades was $5 billion on volume of 777 million shares at the close of trade. The top three stocks by value were BHP Billiton Limited
(ASX:BHP), Commonwealth Bank of Australia
(ASX:CBA) and Westpac Banking Corporation
(ASX:WBC).
On the futures market the SPI is 18 points up.
Company news
Qantas Airways Limited
(ASX:QAN) has scored a regulatory boost as it strives to expand its services to America. Australia’s biggest airline has received provisional approval from Australia’s competition watchdog to continue and enhance its alliance with American Airlines. Qantas closed 1.49 per cent up at $3.40
Telecommunications company M2 Group Limited
(ASX:MTU) has moved to majority ownership in Aggregato Global The asset is described as a specialist provider of prepaid international telecommunications services with a large retail distribution network. Shares in M2 closed 0.09 per cent down at $10.76
Caltex Australia Limited
(ASX:CTX) has improved its profit over the first half of the 2015 financial year.
Shares in Austin Exploration Limited
(ASX:AKK) have jumped more than 20 per cent after announcing it has hit oil in Kentucky.
Orthocell Limited
(ASX:OCC) has received a $430,000 grant to progress its laboratory grown tendon project.
Advanced manufacturer Quickstep Holdings Limited
(ASX:QHL) has secured its first global automotive parts project.
Best and worst performers
The best performing sector was materials adding 1.5 per cent to close at 8,445. The worst performing sector was utilities, losing 1.25 per cent to close at 6,359 points.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Western Areas Limited
(ASX:WSA), rising 6.67 per cent to close at $3.04. Shares in Fortescue Metals Group Limited
(ASX:FMG) and AWE Limited
(ASX:AWE) also closed higher.
The worst performing stock was Liquefied Natural Gas Limited
(ASX:LNG), dropping 4.1 per cent to close at $3.74. Shares in Slater & Gordon Limited
(ASX:SGH) and Pacific Brands Limited
(ASX:PBG) also closed lower.
IPO REFFIND Limited
(ASX:RFN) started trading today. The cloud based job referral service floated with an issue price of $0.20, opened at $0.245 and closed at $0.26.
Commodities
Gold is trading at $US1,165 an ounce.
Light crude is $0.68 down at $US51.65 a barrel.
The Australian dollar is buying $US0.7485
