The local share market may be in for a stronger start this morning after stocks on Wall St gained overnight following the release of some positive economic reports on housing and manufacturing. Stronger commodity prices may help boost resource stocks today.
The local share market closed lower on Wednesday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index down 81 points to 3,874 and on the futures market the SPI200’s up 16 points.
Checking currencies at 8:40am the Aussie dollar is buying 80.89 US cents. On the cross rates the dollar is trading at 78.16 Yen, 57.25 Euro cents and 49.13 British pence.
In economic news out today: The ABS releases international trade in goods and services data for May and manufacturing production data also for May.
In company news: Shares in property company Valad Property Group (ASX:VPG) jumped 36.98 per cent yesterday to 10 cents. The company announced that it has handed over close to half of its European assets to a European property joint venture with the Bank of Scotland. Valad has contributed property assets to the joint venture worth $469 million, associated liabilities of $761 million and net equity in joint ventures and investments of $382 million. The joint venture called Duke is for three years and any cash or profit generated will be used to retire debt. Valad will still manage the assets contributed to the joint venture, saying its equity in the joint venture is expected to be nil as at June 30 2009. Bank of Scotland has created a new $135 million facility for the joint venture to support ongoing business. Valad Property Group posted a $248 million loss in 2008 after profits the four years previous.
Shares in vertically integrated forestry and forest products company, Forest Enterprises Australia Ltd (ASX:FEA) fell 10.71 per cent to 12.5 cents yesterday, after the company reported that sales of its managed forestry investment products for the 2008/2009 financial year totaled around $23 million. The company also says revenues this year from timber sales and plantation establishment are expected to significantly exceed those from last year. CEO Andrew White says the major driver of the managed agribusiness investment market this year was industry sentiment following the collapse of Timbercorp and Great Southern in the June quarter. Given the challenging environment the company says its banking syndicate has agreed to waive relevant covenants for the June 2009 reporting period. Forest Enterprises Australia’s 2008 net profit was its best in five years.
Turning to the ex-dividend scoreboard, and while there are no companies going ex-dividend today, tomorrow Programmed Maintenance Services is going ex-dividend.
To international markets: US Markets closed higher on Wednesday - The Dow Jones industrial average gained 57 points. The S&P500 Index up 4 points and the NASDAQ added 11.
European markets also higher: London’s FTSE up 92, Paris rose 77 and Frankfurt added 97 points.
Asian markets were mixed: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was closed. Tokyo’s Nikkei down 19 and China’s SSE Composite up 49 points.
Looking at Metals: Gold is $13.90 higher at US$941.30 an ounce for the August contract on Comex. For the September contract Silver is up 16 cents to US$13.76 and copper rose 6 cents to US$2.33.
And finally oil declined 58 cents to US$69.31 a barrel for August light crude in New York.
