The Australian share market is lower at midday, Telstra shares leading the declines after one of its major shareholders sold a big slice of its stake in the telco. Bank shares also took a hit after Westpac announced a rise in bad debts.
The S&P/ASX200 index is down 64 points at 4,314 and on the futures market the SPI 200’s down 39 points.
To business news at midday: Macquarie Airports (ASX:MAP) has reported a net loss of $299 million for the six months to June 30 compared to a loss of $274 million the year before. The result reflects the impact of airport revaluations which has no impact on operating performance, cashflows or distributions. Macquarie’s Sydney airport, which makes up more than 60 per cent of the company’s asset portfolio, has proved to be resilient with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization up 2 per cent for the six months to June 30. Macquarieamortisation Airports declared an interim dividend of 13 cents a share and reaffirmed its distribution guidance for the full year of 21 cents a share. Shares in Macquarie Airports dropped 0.43 per cent to $2.32.
Property investor Macquarie CountryWide Trust (ASX:MCW) has posted a $1.4 billion loss for the full year compared to a profit of $100.4 million a year ago. CEO Steven Sewell says property fundamentals have been impacted in all markets and the company expects that they will remain under pressure into the 2010 financial year. However the company remains confident that business conditions for grocery-anchored property remain sound, as demonstrated by the continued solid performance of the non-discretionary retail sector. Mr Sewell forecast a distribution of around 6 cents a unit for the 2010 financial year. Macquarie CountryWide Trust shares lost 0.88 per cent to $0.565.
Turning now to market indices: The best performing sector at midday is the Health Care index up 46 points to 8,330. Shares in CSL up 1.07 per cent at $32.26. Shares in Primary Health Care and Ansell are also stronger at noon.
One of the worst performing sectors at midday is the Telco Services index, down 42 points at 1,208. Shares in Telstra down 3.56 per cent to $3.52. Shares in Macquarie Telecom Group and Singapore Telecommunications are also lower at noon.
Looking to New Zealand and the NZSX50 is 6 points lower. Taking a look at the top five stocks by value on the NZSX50: Telstra heads the list, stock down 2.87 per cent at $4.40, followed by Telecom of New Zealand, Fletcher Building, Contact Energy and Fisher & Paykel Appliances.
To gold and the dollar: Gold is currently trading at $940.55 US an ounce and the Aussie dollar is trading at 82.73 US cents.
