Outlook: Global selloff to push ASX lower

Market Reports

Yesterday’s carnage on the local market looks set to continue this morning as a global selloff in equities crushes investor confidence. The key catalyst to the share rout appears to be unease about growth in China, but the pessimism was also fuelled by the Greek Prime Minister resigning and calling another round of elections.
 
This year’s results season has been over shadowed by global instability with still no clear indication from the US Federal Reserve on when it will begin to move interest rates from record low levels.
 
Amid the maelstrom we will see some important results today from Medibank Private, Coca-Cola Amatil, IAG and Santos.
 
Global figures

Wall Street closed lower yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 2.06 per cent to close at 16,991, the S&P 500 lost 2.1 per cent to close at 2,036 and the NASDAQ plunged 2.8 per cent to close at 4,877.
 
European markets closed lower: London’s FTSE is down 0.6 per cent, Paris gave 2.1 per cent and Frankfurt slumped 2.3 per cent.
 
Asian markets closed lower: Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 0.9 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is down 1.8 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite slid 3.4 per cent.
 
The Australian share market closed lower yesterday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 92 points down to finish at 5,289. On the futures market the SPI is 67 points down. 
 
Turning to currencies and the Australian Dollar at 7:20AM was buying $US0.7338 cents, 46.79 Pence Sterling, 90.54 Yen and 65.33 Euro cents.

Company news
 
The ACCC has given TPG Telecom Limited (ASX:TPM) its approval to acquire iiNet in a deal worth some $1.56 billion. TPG Telecom will become one of the countries major suppliers of internet services and the decision by the competition watchdog said players such as Telstra, Optus and M2 group would offer sufficient competition. S&P Dow Jones Indices yesterday moved to remove iiNet from the S&P ASX200 index effective August 24. Shares in TPG closed 2.62 per cent up yesterday at $9.40.
 
Shares in Mineral Resources Limited (ASX:MIN) were lower yesterday as the company reported a net profit of $12.8 million, down 94.5 per cent on last year’s figure. The mining services company says the profit figure was impacted by significant one-off non-cash items relating to the Minerals Resource Rent Tax and carrying values of mineral stocks. Shares in Mineral Resources closed 6.09 per cent lower yesterday at $4.47
 
Ex-dividends

Domino Pizza Enterprises (ASX:DMP) paying 27.2c fully franked,
Fairfax Media Limited (ASX:FXJ) is paying 2c 50% franked
Summerset Group Holdings (ASX:SNZ) is paying 1.4c unfranked.
 
Commodities

Gold has has surged $24.40 to $US1,152 an ounce for the December contract on Comex.
Silver has gained $0.36 to $15.59 for September.
Copper is up $0.04 to $2.32 a pound.
Oil has slipped $0.34 to $US40.93 a barrel for September light crude in New York.

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