The local share market may open lower this morning following a weak lead from overseas markets after a big tumble in Chinese stocks caused concern for the global economy. A big fall in the price of oil is likely to weigh on energy stocks like Woodside Petroleum today.
The local share market closed lower on Monday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index is down 11 points to 4,479 and on the futures market the SPI200’s down 10 points.
Checking currencies at 8:40am the Aussie Dollar is buying 84.3 US cents, 78.35 Yen, 58.83 Euro cents and 51.79 Pence Stirling.
In economic news out today: the RBA will meet today to make a decision on interest rates for September, the index of commodity prices is due out, as well as the ABS Balance Of Payments for the June quarter, ABS building approvals for July are to be released, and the Australian Industry Group/PricewaterhouseCoopers Performance of Manufacturing Index for August is also out today.
In company about this morning: Shares in gas explorer and producer Arrow Energy Ltd (ASX:AOE) dropped 1.08 per cent to $4.59 yesterday. The company has increased its interest in the 450 mega watt Braemar 2 Power Station and associated high pressure gas pipeline. Arrow is to acquire a further 24.9 per cent interest taking its interest in the power station and pipeline to 74.9 per cent. The company will pay ERM Power $30 million cash and $15 million worth of Arrow shares for the interest. Arrow says it also has the option of acquiring the balance of ERM’s interest in the power station for $63 million, taking Arrow to a 100 per cent ownership of the power station and pipeline. Arrow Energy pulled itself out of the red in 2007 to post a profit for that year and for 2008.
Wholesaler and distributor of children’s products Funtastic Ltd (ASX:FUN) shares lost 6.81 per cent to $0.205 yesterday. The company reported a $25.34 million loss for the six months to June 30 compared to a profit of $5.77 million in the same period a year ago. Revenue dropped 13.9 per cent to $149.32 million as a result of the loss of revenue from the collapse of ABC Learning Centre’s in November 2008. Funtastic was the sole provider of toys to ABC Learning Centre’s. Funtastic says the directors expect to see little improvement in the second half of trading and, as previously advised the result will be materially lower than last year. Funtastic posted a $50.8 million loss for 2008.
Checking ex-dividends, and among those going today we have Foster’s Group with a 15.25 cent fully franked dividend, GPT Group with a 0.9 cent unfranked dividend, Healthscope with an 11 cent fully franked dividend, Spotless Group with a 6 cent fully franked dividend, and Treasury Group with a 10 cent fully franked dividend.
To the international scoreboard: U.S. stocks closed lower on Monday. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 48 points. The S&P500 Index lost 8 points and the NASDAQ fell 20 points.
European markets were mixed: London’s FTSE rose 40 points, Paris fell 40 points and Frankfurt declined 53 points.
Asian markets were lower: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 374 points. Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 42 points and China’s SSE Composite dropped 193 points.
Looking at Metals: Gold lost $5.30 to US$953.50 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver is up 11 cents to US$14.92 and copper is down 12 cents to US$2.83.
And finally, oil is down $2.78 to US$69.96 a barrel for October light crude in New York.
