The Australian share market is expected to open stronger with solid leads from overseas markets, particularly Wall Street after a series of better-than-expected quarterly results. Plus oil, gold and silver prices gained overnight.
Yesterday the local share market closed lower for the first time in eight trading days. The S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 4 points to 4,064 and on the futures market the SPI200’s is up 61 points.
Checking currencies at 8:35 am the Aussie Dollar is buying 81.5 US cents, 77.5 Yen, 57.55 Euro cents and 49.4 Pence Stirling.
In company news:Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX:MQG) closed stronger yesterday, adding 10.46% to $2.64. Macquarie has reached an agreement to sell the management rights to Macquarie Airports, which is its $4.5 billion flagship airport fund. AFR reports the majority owner of Sydney Airport has reached the deal with its parent to buy and cancel the management agreement for as much as $300 million. Macquarie Group is expected to retain its 22.1% stake in Macquarie Airports. Looking at the past five years of net profits, 2008 was the best result.
Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) shares closed higher yesterday, adding 3.01% to $57.49. The world’s second biggest miner has agreed to comply with a Guinean government request and remove equipment from two disputed iron ore concessions the West African country following a warning that its activities there would be shut down. Rio says it is in the process of removing a drilling rig from the disputed Simandou deposit. Guinea ordered Rio in December to hand over the northern half of the site to BSG Resources. Rio, which plans to develop a $6 billion project at the site, has said it has a valid legal claim to the whole deposit. Looking at the past five years of net profits, the best result for Rio Tinto was in 2006.
Checking the ex-dividend scoreboard and on Monday Hire Intelligence International is going with a 1 cent fully franked dividend and Transmetro Corporation is also going with a 3 cent fully franked dividend.
To international markets: US markets closed higher overnight. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 188 points. The S&P500 Index rose 22 and the NASDAQ added 47 points.
European markets were also higher: London’s FTSE rose 66 points. Paris added 69 points and Frankfurt is up 126 points.
Asian markets were also stronger: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 570 points. Tokyo’s Nikkei added 70 points and the Shanghai Composite up 32 points.
Looking at Metals: Gold added US$1.50 to US$954.80 an ounce, for the August contract on Comex. For the September contract Silver rose 7 cents to US$13.77 and copper is steady at US$2.52.
And finally the price of oil rose US$1.76 to US$67.16 a barrel for September light crude in New York.
