The Australian share market has received a positive lead from international markets and commodities overnight and is expected to open stronger.
It follows a higher finish yesterday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 48 points to 4,190 and on the futures market the SPI200’s is up 33 points.
Checking currencies at 8:35AM the Aussie Dollar is higher and is buying 82.51 US cents, 78.84 Yen, 58.66 Euro cents and 50.03 Pence Stirling.
In local economic news: the TD Securities-Melbourne Institute Inflation Gauge is comes out today. Also being released is the Reserve Bank of Australia's financial aggregates data for June.
And before we move on to the latest in company news, we’ll check what’s happening today as far as reports go. Pacifica Group Ltd and Energy Resources of Australia Ltd are expected to release their first half results today. And Origin Energy Ltd releases its fourth quarter production report.
In company news: Elders (ASX:ELD) shares last traded at 28 cents. The Australian Financial Review is reporting that Elders has struck a deal to sell its insurance division to QBE for as much as $300 million. The deal is believed to be linked to the Australian rural services firm’s decision to place its shares in a trading halt yesterday pending an announcement.
ANZ (ASX:ANZ) shares closed stronger yesterday, adding 3.62% to $17.74. News reports about this morning are tipping that ANZ might announce its purchase of Royal Bank of Scotland’s banking assets in Taiwan as early as next week. According to Dow Jones newswires Taiwan will be the first of several retail and commercial banking assets in Asia sold by RBS. ANZ sold $2.5 billion of shares in May to fund a bid for RBS's Asian assets. Looking at the past five years of net profit results, 2007 was the best year.
Checking the ex-dividend scoreboard and just two going today and they are Alcoa with a 3.12 cent unfranked dividend and Singapore Telecommunications with a 5.93 cent unfranked dividend.
To international markets: A string of upbeat corporate reports added to positive sentiment on Wall Street overnight, helping to lift the main indices to fresh 2009 highs. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 84 points. The S&P500 Index gained 12 and the NASDAQ added 17 points.
European markets were stronger: London’s FTSE rose 84 points, Paris lifted 70 points and Frankfurt added 90 points.
Asian markets also finished higher: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 99 points. Tokyo’s Nikkei added 52 points and the Shanghai Composite lifted 55 points.
Looking at Metals: Gold gained US$7.60 to US$937.30 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. For the September contract Silver rose 23 cents to US$13.49 and copper added 9 cents at US$2.56.
And finally, oil added US$3.59 to US$66.94 a barrel for September light crude in New York.
