The Australian share market is expected to open lower this morning after falls on Wall Street at the end of last week as well as lower oil and gold prices. On Friday our local market had its strongest close since October 8 of last year on increasing investor optimism about the economic outlook and better-than-expected profit results. The S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 25 points to 4,461 and on the futures market the SPI200’s is down 28 points.
Checking currencies at 8:35AM the Aussie Dollar is buying 83.05 US cents, 78.68 Yen, 58.52 Euro cents and 50.3 Pence Stirling.
The week ahead will be a busy one for company earnings results. Among those reporting today are NIB Holdings, Mac Services Group, Transfield Services Infrastructure Fund, Ansell, BlueScope Steel, iiNet and Austin Engineering. And the major companies reporting this week include Rio Tinto, Wesfarmers, Qantas Airways and ASX Limited.
In company news about this morning: Amcor (ASX:AMC) last traded higher, up 4.05% to $5.65. The Australian Financial Review reports the Australian packaging group is expected to raise $2.4 billion to fund its acquisition of Rio Tinto’s Alcan Packaging unit. The newspaper said that Amcor’s offer, to be brokered by UBS and Goldman Sachs JBWere, would consist of $1.6 billion in equity and about $800 million in debt. Looking at the past five years, Amcor’s best net profit was in 2007.
Arrow Energy (ASX:AOE) last traded lower, down 4.87% to $4.30. Britain’s Sunday Telegraph is reporting Royal Dutch Shell has made at least a $2.5 approach to the Australian coal seam gas producer. The oil giant discussed acquiring Arrow several weeks ago as part of wider talks about investing further in the Australian company's assets. Last week, Arrow said it had held talks over the possible sale of some of its assets but didn’t name any suitors. A spokesperson for Shell declined to comment. Arrow Energy climbed out of the red in 2007 and has posted increasing net profits since then.
Checking ex-dividends and plenty on the list today, among them is AXA Asia Pacific with a 9.25 cent 30% franked dividend. Commonwealth Bank is also going with a $1.15 fully franked dividend and JB Hi Fi with a 29 cent fully franked dividend.
To the international scoreboard: US markets fell on Friday, snapping a four-week winning streak. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 77 points. The S&P500 Index fell 9 points and the NASDAQ dropped 24 points.
European markets were weaker: London’s FTSE lost 41 points, Paris is down 29 points and Frankfurt lost 92 points.
Asian markets were mixed: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is up 32 points. Tokyo’s Nikkei added 80 points but the Shanghai Composite is down 94 points.
Looking at Metals: Gold fell US$7.80 to US$948.70 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. For the September contract Silver is down 27 cents to US$14.72 and copper is down 8 cents at US$2.84.
And finally, oil lost $3.01 to US$67.51 a barrel for September light crude in New York.
