Aussie shares continued on their recent upward trend and closed higher today. Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and other resource stocks benefited from rallying base metal prices on the London Metal Exchange overnight. Financials also boosted the local market today.
This afternoon the Reserve Bank announced that interest rates will stay on hold for a fourth month at 3% and the market now expects that further rate cuts are unlikely.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 46 points higher at 4,309 while on the futures market, the SPI200’s up 50.
To company news around this afternoon, Asciano Group (ASX:AIO) has had the general manager of its Patrick container ports division, Doug Schultz, resign to pursue other career opportunities. The role will be filled internally by the current head of the Pacific National intermodal business Paul Garaty. The transport infrastructure company also said that CEO Don Telford will retire and that various management changes are underway. Asciano’s shares closed 0.63% lower at $1.575.
Gas producer Arrow Energy (ASX:AOE) has signed a production sharing contract with the Indonesian government for a project in South Sumatra. Arrow will be the operator of the project and holds the largest stake at 45%, while two other partners have a 27.5% interest each. Arrow said discussions have been going on for some time about this arrangement and sais it believes it is a high quality resource. Arrow Energy shares closed 1.66% lower at $4.15.
Also making news today: Biotechnology firm Starpharma Holdings (ASX:SPL) said it expects to post a full year net loss after tax of about $4.1 million. The forecast is a 45 per cent improvement on the prior year.
David Jones (ASX:DJS) shares closed higher today. Rival Myer said it plans to list as early as next year.
Taking a look at some of the stories covered in our earlier reports: ANZ Banking Group (ASX:ANZ) has acquired selected Royal Bank of Scotland businesses in Asia for around US$550 million.
Ten Network Holdings (ASX:TEN) has confirmed its earnings guidance for the financial year, and announced a fully underwritten equity raising of approximately $138 million and shares are in a trading halt.
Now to the best and worst performers: one of the best performing sectors at close was the Materials index, up 219 points to 11,358; while the worst performing sector at close was the Utilities index; down 130 points to 4,025.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ ASX200 was Austar shares rose 8.65 per cent to $1.13. Shares in Panoramic Resources and Incitec Pivot also closed higher.
The worst performing stock was Goodman Group with shares falling 10.09 per cent to $0.49. Shares in Macmahon Holdings and Linc Energy also closed lower.
In commodities, gold is trading at $955.10 U.S an ounce and light crude is down 74 cents at $70.84 U.S a barrel.
