The Australian share market looks like it may extend on yesterday's gains after Wall St rose overnight following better than expected second quarter earnings results from Goldman Sachs.
Focus today is likely to be on Rio Tinto who is expected to release its second quarter production report, Reuters says analysts are looking for a 15 per cent rise in iron ore production for the quarter.
Yesterday the local share market closed higher with the S&P/ASX 200 Index up 130 points to 3,867 and on the futures market the SPI200’s is up 35 points.
Checking currencies at 8:40 am the Aussie dollar is buying 79.4 US cents, 74.24 Yen, 56.85 Euro cents and 48.65 British pence.
In economic news: ABS building activity data for the March quarter is to be released, as well as the Westpac/Melbourne Institute’s indexes of activity for May.
In company news: Shares in global miner BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP) rose 4.94 per cent to $33.79 yesterday. The Australian Financial Review is reporting this morning that BHP is asking for as much as $1 billion for its Ravensthorpe nickel mine in Western Australia. The paper reports a wide variation in analysts estimates, saying that some believe the nickel laterite operation could go for just $1 while others say it is worth $500 million. At the start of the month BHP announced the sale of its Yabulu nickel refinery in QLD, which had processed nickel ore from Ravensthorpe. BHP’s 2008 net profit was US$15.4 billion.
Shares in uranium, copper and gold explorer Alliance Resources Ltd (ASX:AGS) gained 14.96 per cent to 73 cents yesterday. The company’s Four Mile Uranium mine in South Australia has won approval from Environment Minister Peter Garrett. According to The Australian this is only the third uranium mine approved by the Australian government in over 20 years. Last month Alliance reported that the mineral resource at the deposit had nearly doubled to 28,000 tonnes of uranium oxide. Alliance Resources has a 25 per cent interest in the project in partnership with U.S. based General Atomics subsidiary Quasar, based in Adelaide. Alliance Resources has posted net losses over the last five years.
To international markets: Wall Street finished stronger overnight. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 28 points. The S&P500 Index added 5 points and the NASDAQ rose 7 points.
European markets were also higher: London’s FTSE rose 36 points. Paris added 30 points and Frankfurt is up 59 points.
Asian markets were higher: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 631 points. Tokyo’s Nikkei climbed 211 points and China’s SSE Composite advanced 65 points.
Looking at Metals: Gold added 30 cents to US$922.80 an ounce, for the August contract on Comex. For the September contract Silver rose 7 cents to US$12.86 and copper is up 8 cents to US$2.30.
And finally oil prices slipped 17 cents to US$59.52 a barrel for August light crude in New York.
