Positive leads from overseas markets overnight are expected to push the Australian share market higher at the open. Yesterday our market closed marginally higher with the S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 4 points to 4,378 and on the futures market the SPI200’s is up 13 points.
Checking currencies at 8:45AM the Aussie Dollar has strengthened against the US and is buying 83.27 US cents, 78.47 Yen, 58.39 Euro cents and 50.44 Pence Stirling.
Earnings season continues today and those due to report their annual results include Insurance Australia Group, Mortgage Choice and Billabong International. First-half results are also due from APN News & Media and Macquarie Airports. Westpac is due to issue its June quarter update.
In company about this morning: Telstra (ASX:TLS) shares are steady at $3.65. Telstra’s biggest shareholder, the Future Fund has taken advantage of a bullish market to sell more than a quarter of its holding in the nation’s largest phone company. The Federal Government's Future Fund has sold $2.4 billion worth of shares with UBS managing the sale. Since the Future Fund was established in 2006, it has reduced its stake in Telstra by a third to 10.9%. Looking at the past five years of net profit results, Telstra’s best year was in 2005.
News Corporation (ASX:NWS) shares closed higher yesterday, up 2.33% to $15.34. The British newspaper arm of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, News International, plans to shutdown the London paper – which is a free evening paper for London commuters. The company has started a 30-day consultation on the proposed closure which will affect about 60 staff. The move follows Murdoch’s warning earlier this month that it would move away from free content and start charging readers of its online newspapers in the coming year. News Corp’s net profits have been on the up and up over the past four years.
Checking ex-dividends and going today are SAI Global with a 6.1 cent fully franked dividend and on Monday Amcor is going with a 17 cent unfranked dividend.
To the international scoreboard: US markets gained overnight. The Dow Jones industrial average lifted 71 points. The S&P500 Index rose 11 and the NASDAQ added 20 points.
European markets were higher: London’s FTSE added 67 points, Paris is up 55 points and Frankfurt rose 79 points.
Asian markets were also stronger: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is up 375 points. Tokyo’s Nikkei added 179 points and the Shanghai Composite gained 126 points.
Looking at Metals: Gold fell US$3.10 to US$941.70 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. For the September contract Silver is up 1 cent to US$13.88 and copper fell 2 cents at US$2.74.
And finally, oil is up 12 cents to US$72.54 a barrel for September light crude in New York.
