The local share market is higher at midday, supported by gains in the miners like mining giant BHP, and following a rally on Wall St overnight.
The S&P/ASX200 index is up 46 points at 4,110 and on the futures market the SPI 200’s up 43 points.
To business news at midday: Oil giant Woodside Petroleum Ltd (ASX:WPL) says production in the second quarter rose 1 per cent from the same period a year ago, but down 6 per cent from the first quarter. The company says production volumes compared to the previous quarter were reduced mainly by Vincent production being shut-in for 9 weeks and natural field decline. Revenue fell 36 per cent compared to the year before and down 14 per cent from the first quarter with the company saying lower commodity prices in the second quarter of 2009 outweighed higher sales volumes. Woodside says its 2009 production target of 81 to 86 million barrels of oil equivalent remains unchanged. Woodside Petroleum shares rose 1.3 per cent to $44.27.
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX:ANZ) has announced that John Morschel will succeed Charles Goode as Chairman in February 2010. The announcement follows Sir Rod Eddington’s decision to withdraw his offer to serve as an ANZ director and to succeed Mr Goode as Chairman, as announced in November 2008. Mr Morschel was a director of Westpac from 1993 to 2001 including two years as executive director, and was managing director of Lend Lease from 1988 to 1995. ANZ shares gained 1.19 per cent to $16.97.
Turning now to market indices: One of the best performing sectors at midday is the Consumer Discretionary index up 25 points to 1,403. Shares in Aristocrat Leisure up 5.41 per cent at $4.48. Shares in Fairfax Media and Macquarie Media Group are also stronger at noon.
One of the worst performing sectors at midday is the Health Care index down 18 to 7,724. Shares in Pharmaxis down 2.32 per cent to $2.53. Shares in Ansell and CSL are also lower at noon.
Looking to New Zealand and the NZSX50 is 43 points higher. Taking a look at the top five stocks by value on the NZSX50: Fletcher Building is at the top, stock up 1.54 per cent at $7.25, followed by Telecom of New Zealand, Westpac, Vector and Auckland Airport.
To gold and the dollar: Gold is currently trading at $949.30 US an ounce and the Aussie dollar is trading at 81.44 US cents.
