The local share market may open marginally higher this morning following a modest gain on Wall St overnight. Stronger base metals prices are likely to lift resource stocks today and help support the market.
On Monday, the Australian share market closed higher. The S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 50 points to 4,140 and on the futures market the SPI200’s up 5 points.
Checking currencies at 8:40 am the Aussie dollar is buying 82.3 US cents, 78.33 Yen, 57.79 Euro cents and 49.92 British Pence.
In economic news: And today Reserve Bank of Australia assistant governor, financial system, Malcolm Edey is to appear before a Senate Standing Committee Economics inquiry into the Federal Governments bank funding guarantees.
In company news: Shares in oil and gas producer Santos Ltd (ASX:STO) rose 0.75 per cent to $14.70 yesterday. Santos says it has secured a four year extension to its existing contract with Newmont Mining Services in Western Australia. Commencing in late 2009, Santos says total sales revenue under the contract will be approximately $100 million. The gas will be supplied from the offshore John Brookes gas field, processed at the East Spar Gas processing facilities on Varanus Island and transported through the Goldfields Gas Transmission Pipeline. Santos posted net profit of $1.65 billion in 2008.
Shares in gaming machine company Tabcorp Holdings Ltd (ASX:TAH) gained 0.28 per cent to $7.24 yesterday, and shares in Tatts Group Ltd (ASX:TTS) added 1.62 per cent to $2.51 yesterday. The two gaming machine giants have both expressed interest in acquiring betting agency TOTE Tasmania owned by the Tasmanian Government. On May 4 the Tasmanian Government announced its intention to sell TOTE Tasmania. Tabcorp confirmed that it has lodged an Expression of Interest in respect of TOTE Tasmania, which follows a notification by the ACCC on its online mergers register of an informal review into a possible acquisition. And Tatts Group says the ACCC is to make public enquiries into Tatts Group’s ongoing participation in the sale of TOTE Tasmania. Tabcorp Holdings posted a loss in 2008 after profits the four years previous, and Tatts Group’s 2008 net profit fell slightly from the year before.
Checking the ex-dividend scoreboard and RGC Corporation is going today with a 3.7 cent fully franked dividend. And coming up later in the week Singapore Telecommunications is going ex dividend on Friday.
To international markets: US markets finished slightly higher on Monday. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 15 points. The S&P500 Index rose 3 and the NASDAQ gained 2 points.
European markets were also stronger: London’s FTSE rose 10 points, Paris advanced 6 points and Frankfurt rose 22 points.
Asian markets were higher: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 269 points. Tokyo’s Nikkei added 144 points and China’s SSE Composite up 63 points.
Looking at Metals: Gold rose 40 cents to US$956.30 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. For the September contract Silver rose 12 cents to US$13.99 and copper gained 4 cents at US$2.56.
And finally, oil rose 33 cents to US$68.38 a barrel for September light crude in New York.
