It’s been a rocky week on the markets, today the local bourse headed higher at open and it traded in a wide band before closing up 0.5 per cent. The beginning of the week was spent digesting the Greek referendum result but that crisis soon gave to way to the rout on the Chinese share market and the wildly fluctuating iron ore price.
Today’s close showed a trickle of optimism was returning with the miners rallying after some major selling earlier in the week.
Today, the S&P/ASX 200 index closed 21 points up to finish at 5,492. Over the week the index lost 46 points.
The value of trades was $3.8 billion on volume of 631 million shares at the close of trade. The top three stocks by value were BHP Billiton Limited
(ASX:BHP), Westpac Banking Corporation
(ASX:WBC) and Commonwealth Bank of Australia
(ASX:CBA).
On the futures market the SPI is 32 points up.
Looking at Wall Street, US major indexes have fallen over the four trading days this week: The Dow Jones Industrial Average has lost 1 per cent. The S&P 500 Index has is down 1.2 per cent. The NASDAQ has given up 1.8 per cent. The 100 Index has lost 1.9 per cent.
Company news
Shares in Speedcast International Limited
(ASX:SDA) have gained on news it has acquired NewSat’s Teleport and Satellite Services business from its receivers. The satellite service provider says the assets are in Adelaide and Perth and the company will also retain some 20 key employees. Shares in Speedcast closed 6.67 per cent up at $2.88
Transurban Group
(ASX:TCL) says it increased June quarter toll revenue by almost 71 per cent to $400 million compared the same period last year.The company says its preferred measure of proportional toll revenue was up 43.4 per cent to $411 million. Shares in Transurban Groupclosed 0.21 per cent down at $9.65
Decmil Group’s Limited
(ASX:DCG) Decmil Construction has been selected as a contractor for the New Zealand Government’s CSR Innovation Project.
Gold miner St Barbara Limited
(ASX:SBM) has managed a record production at its Gwalia and Simberi mines with a company total of 377,387 ounces for the year.
Best and worst performers
The best performing sector was materials adding 1.5 per cent to close at 8,573. The worst performing sector was health care, losing 0.2 per cent to close at 18,269 points.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Liquefied Natural Gas Limited
(ASX:LNG), rising 4.01 per cent to close at $3.89. Shares in Arrium Limited
(ASX:ARI) and Western Areas Limited
(ASX:WSA) also closed higher.
The worst performing stock was APN News and Media Limited
(ASX:APN), dropping 3.68 per cent to close at $0.66. Shares in Cardno Limited
(ASX:CDD) and Evolution
(ASX:EVN) also closed lower.
Commodities
The price of gold is trading at $US1,164 an ounce, and is down $4.34 over the week.
Light crude is $1.14 higher at $US53.23 a barrel.
The Australian dollar is buying $0.7486 and is $0.0098 down over the week.
