The Australian share market looks set for a positive start to the week, taking leads from Friday’s Wall Street gains. Choppy trade received a boost from US employment data, with eight of the 10 S&P sectors seeing gains; led higher by a positive day in the materials space.
The US economy added 242,000 jobs in February. Figures released by the Labor Department came in above expectations, while the unemployment rate held steady at 4.9 percent.
Markets
Wall Street closed up yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4 per cent to close at 17,007, the S&P 500 added 0.3 per cent to close at 2000 and the NASDAQ gained 0.2 per cent to close at 4,717.
European markets closed up: London’s FTSE gained 1.1 per cent, Paris gained 0.9 per cent and Frankfurt gained 0.7 per cent.
Asian markets closed up: Tokyo’s Nikkei added 0.3 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.2 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite added 0.5 per cent.
The Australian share market closed higher on Friday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 9 points up to finish at 5,090, gaining 210 points on the week. On the futures market the SPI is 36 points up.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar at 7:30AM was buying $US0.741 cents, 52.13 Pence Sterling, 84.49 Yen and 67.42 Euro cents.
Economic news
Due out today from the Ai Group is the construction index for February. Meanwhile ANZ will release Job advertisement numbers for February also.
Company news
Red 5 Limited
(ASX:RED) has recorded a net profit of $10.9 million for the half year ended 31 December 2015, up from a loss of $5.87 million a year earlier. The company reported positive production performance at the Siana gold project in the Philippines, with gold sales of 30,000 ounces at an average price of $1,560 and a total unit cost of $1,109 per ounce. Shares in Red 5 closed 4.44 per cent up on Friday at $0.094.
Compumedics Limited
(ASX:CMP) has disputed a media article regarding the company and its business in China, in relation to corruption charges brought against four Chinese officials. Compumedics said it has no knowledge of, or relationship with, the company discussed in the AFR article, saying that Compumedics works with a number of key distributors in China, who all use sub-distributors in various provinces in China. Compumedics has said it will undertake its own investigation and policy review to assess means to avoid issues of this nature in the future. Shares in Compumedics closed 8.75 per cent lower on Friday at $0.365.
Commodities
Gold has gained $12.50 to $US1,271 an ounce for the April contract on Comex.
Silver has gained $0.55 to $15.69 for May.
Copper has gained $0.07 to $2.27 a pound for May.
Oil has gained $1.35 to $US35.92 a barrel for April light crude in New York.
