The local share market is marginally lower at midday, investors weary ahead of further company earnings results and an employment report to be released by the ABS on Thursday. The major banks fell after strong gains in the past week on broker upgrades.
The S&P/ASX200 index is down 5 points at 4,305 and on the futures market the SPI 200’s up 8 points.
To business news at midday: Property investor Macquarie CountryWide Trust (ASX:MCW) has cut the value of its portfolio by 9 per cent or $401 million from the previous portfolio book value. The company says independent revaluations were undertaken on 70 per cent of its portfolio. CEO Steven Sewell says over the past 18 months, the trust has sold or contracted to sell $2.33 billion of assets from the portfolio. Mr Sewell says on completion of these sales, the trust will repay or eliminate $1.8 billion of property-level debt. Macquarie CountryWide Trust shares gained 1.01 per cent to $0.50.
Diversified Australian company Hills Industries Ltd (ASX:HIL) has reported a 41.6 per cent drop in profit to $28 million for the year to June 30 in line with previous guidance. The fall came despite the company posting record revenue of $1.2 billion for the 12 months, up from $1.18 billion the year before.Hills Industries also announced a capital raising to raise $50 million through a placement of shares at $1.40 a share. Chairman Jennifer Hill-Ling says following the capital raising, the company will have enough adequate debt facilities to weather the current trading conditions, while at the same time providing flexibility to pursue acquisition opportunities that may arise in the future. Hills Industries shares are in a trading halt and last traded at $1.745.
Turning now to market indices: the best performing sector at midday is the Health Care index up 182 points to 7,963. Shares in Cochlear up 4.12 per cent at $57.66. Shares in Ansell and Ramsay Health Care are also stronger at noon.
The worst performer at midday is the Financials Excluding Real Estate Investment Trust index, down 28 points at 4,800. Shares in ANZ down 1.84 per cent to $19.21. Shares in Macquarie Group and the Commonwealth Bank are also lower at noon.
Looking to New Zealand and the NZSX50 is 20 points higher. Taking a look at the top five stocks by value on the NZSX50: Telecom of New Zealand heads the list, stock steady at $2.86, followed by Fletcher Building, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, Sky City and Mainfreight.
To gold and the dollar: Gold is currently trading at $966.20 US an ounce and the Aussie dollar is trading at 84.47 US cents.
