Aussie shares are higher at midday, supported by gains in energy stocks like Woodside Petroleum rising on the back of stronger oil prices, however financial stocks limited gains after NAB announced a $2.75 billion capital raising.
The S&P/ASX200 index is up 16 points at 4,067 and on the futures market the SPI 200’s up 1 point.
In economic news: The ABS reports that consumer price inflation for the June quarter was 0.5 per cent compared to 0.1 per cent in the March quarter.
To business news at midday: Grocery retailer Woolworths Ltd (ASX:WOW) has reported a 7.5 per cent rise in full year sales to $49.6 billion. Australian Food and Liquor sales for the year rose 9.6 per cent to $32.8 billion. CEO Michael Luscombe says despite the global economic turmoil, 2009 has been a successful year with solid results across the company’s business overall. Mr Luscombe says continued solid sales growth in food retailing and especially in discretionary areas like apparel, consumer electronics and homewares, highlights the underlying strength of the Australian economy in these times. Woolworths shares fell 0.69 per cent to $27.51.
Paper manufacturer PaperlinX Ltd (ASX:PPX) has cut its earnings forecast for the full year, saying it now expects earnings for 2008/2009 to be 50 per cent lower than the year before. This compares to earlier guidance for profit to come in 30 - 35 per cent lower than the previous year. The company says the downgrade was impacted by the sale of its Netherlands properties and restructuring activities, but does not include impairment reviews. PaperlinX shares dropped 1.22 per cent to $0.405.
Turning now to market indices: The best performing sector at midday is the Industrials index up 47 points to 3,098. Shares in Leighton Holdings up 6.63 per cent at $26.55. Shares in Macquarie Infrastructure Group and Monadelphous Group are also stronger at noon.
One of the worst performing sectors at midday is the Health Care index down 61 to 7,755. Shares in Primary Health Care down 3.04 per cent to $5.43. Shares in Sonic Healthcare and Cochlear are also lower at noon.
Looking to New Zealand and the NZSX50 is 28 points higher. Taking a look at the top five stocks by value on the NZSX50: Telecom of New Zealand heads the list, stock up 2.17 per cent at $2.83, followed by Fletcher Building, Sky City, Contact Energy, and Sky Network Television.
To gold and the dollar: Gold is currently trading at $948.30 US an ounce and the Aussie dollar is trading at 81.7 US cents.
