Australian stocks posted moderate gains today as weakness in materials and healthcare sectors were offset by gains in financial and consumer discretionary stocks on some upbeat earnings.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 28 points higher at 4,332 while on the futures market, the SPI200’s up 45.
To company news around this afternoon: Flight Centre (ASX:FLT) impressed the market as it said it was on track to post a pre-tax profit of around $100 million for the year to 30 June. The travel agent said it will record about $60 million for write-downs for the year but also said that said conditions were stabilising as cheap airfares attracted customers and added that its July performance had been strong. Flight Centre shares closed 21.65% higher to $11.80.
Insurance Australia Group’s (ASX:IAG) CGU business unit and Suncorp Metway’s (ASX:SUN) Vero business have cancelled legal proceedings against each other after they reached an agreement about the ongoing structure of their joint venture truck insurance business. As equal shareholders in NTI, the companies said today that the agreement strengthens the existing joint venture arrangement, enabling the long-standing partnership between CGU and Vero. Further terms of the agreement are confidential. Insurance Australia Group shares gained 1.06% to $3.83 while Suncorp’s shares closed 2.18% lower at $7.63.
Also making news today: Financial planning franchise company Count Financial (ASX:COU) said its net profit declined 9.1 per cent to $19.37 million because of the global financial crisis.
Leighton Holdings’ (ASX:LEI) contractor Leighton Contractors has been awarded an $282 million contract by the Queensland government to design and construct an extra kilometer of Brisbane's busway network.
Taking a look at some of the stories covered in our earlier reports: Home electronics retailer JB Hi-Fi (ASX:JBH) reported a 45 percent rise in full year profit and a 69 percent rise in its dividend.
This afternoon Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) said it has yet to hear any evidence against its top iron ore salesman who is being held without charges in China. According to a report in the Australian, the Chinese official who accused Rio of stealing state secrets to gain the upper hand in iron ore price negotiations, says he is not close to the case and his facts came from state media.
Now to the best and worst performers: The best performing sector at close was the Consumer Discretionary index, up 22 points to 1,464 as Flight Centre and JB Hi-Fi supported the index; while the worst performing sector at close was the Consumer Staples index; down 9 points to 7,054.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ ASX200 was Flight Centre. Shares in Valad Property and Platinum Asset Management also closed higher.
The worst performing stock was Tabcorp with shares falling 4.98 per cent to $6.68. Shares in Australand Property Group and Om Holdings also closed lower.
In commodities, gold is trading at $948.25 U.S an ounce and light crude is up 22 cents at $70.82 U.S a barrel.
