The local share market looks like it may open lower this morning following a weak lead from Wall St overnight. A fall in metal prices may weigh on mining stocks today, while financial are likely to drag the market lower on concerns for the health of their U.S. peers.
The local share market closed higher on Tuesday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index is up 36 points to 4,515 and on the futures market the SPI200’s down 71 points.
Checking currencies at 8:40am the Aussie Dollar is buying 82.82 US cents, 76.97 Yen, 58.25 Euro cents and 51.25 Pence Stirling.
In economic news: The Australian Bureau of Statistics releases national accounts data for the June quarter.
In company about this morning: Shares in building products supplier CSR Ltd (ASX:CSR) gained 0.49 per cent to $2.05 yesterday. CSR managing director Jerry Maycock says it unlikely that an overseas investor will take a cornerstone investment in the company’s sugar business that is to be spun-off into a separate business on its own. According to a report in The Australian, CSR has received expressions of interest from overseas parties, reporting Mr Maycock saying that a deal is unlikely. The paper reports that Mr Maycock says that while he never says never and cannot rule this out completely, he says it’s all about creating better value for shareholders and investors. Mr Maycock says he hopes the demerger of the company’s sugar business, announced on June 17, will be complete by March 2010. CSR posted a $326 million loss for 2009.
Shares in engineering solutions company Neptune Marine Services Ltd (ASX:NMS) rose 0.63 per cent to $0.795 yesterday. The company is to acquire Aberdeen, Scotland based Submersible Technology Services for $31.39 million. The company announced that it has signed a letter of intent to purchase the provider of remotely operated vehicle and survey support services to the offshore oil and gas industry. The deal is the company’s largest, and will use a big portion of its $53 million in capital raised in June this year. Neptune Marine Services pulled itself out of the red in 2008 to post its first profit in five years.
Checking ex-dividends, and among those going today we have Aristocrat Leisure with a 4.5 cent fully franked dividend, Bendigo Mining with 0.5 cent unfranked dividend, Hunter Hall International with a 26.4 cent fully franked dividend and Tatts Group with an 11 cent fully franked dividend.
To the international scoreboard: U.S. stocks closed lower on Tuesday. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 186. The S&P500 Index lost 23 points and the NASDAQ dropped 40 points.
European markets were also weaker: London’s FTSE fell 89 points, Paris fell 70 points and Frankfurt declined 137 points.
Asian markets were higher: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 148 points. Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 38 points and China’s SSE Composite added 16 points.
Looking at Metals: Gold up $3 to US$956.50 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver is up 14 cents to US$15.06 and copper is down 1 cent to US$2.82.
And finally, oil is down $1.91 to US$68.05 a barrel for October light crude in New York.
