Despite mixed leads from Wall Street, the Australian sharemarket looks set to open higher on this penultimate day of the trading week. The hangover from Apple’s disappointing earnings was offset by a recovery in oil prices as optimistic consumer sentiment and a solid rise in households’ real income prompted the US Federal Reserve to keep interest rates on hold for another month.
Markets
Wall Street closed mixed yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.3 per cent to close at 18,042, the S&P 500 added 0.2 per cent to close at 2,095 and the NASDAQ lost 0.5 per cent to close at 4,863.
European markets closed up: London’s FTSE gained 0.6 per cent, Paris gained 0.6 per cent and Frankfurt gained 0.4 per cent.
Asian markets closed lower: Tokyo’s Nikkei fell 0.4 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.2 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite fell 0.4 per cent.
The Australian share market closed lower yesterday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 33 points down to finish at 5,188. On the futures market the SPI is 52 points up.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar at 7:20AM was buying $US0.7603 cents, 52.30 Pence Sterling, 84.75 Yen and 67.13 Euro cents.
Economic news
Due out today from the Australian Bureau of Statistics is import prices for the March quarter
Company news
Blue Sky Alternative Investments Limited
(ASX:BLA) has announced that its fee earning assets under management now exceeds $2 billion. The company says the growth has come from a combination of domestic and offshore institutions, family offices and other wholesale investors, in addition to continued support from Blue Sky’s existing investor network. Shares in Blue Sky closed 3.08 per cent lower yesterday at $6.61.
Thorn Group Limited
(ASX:TGA) has announced the closure of its Consumer Loan business following lower returns as a result of higher customer acquisition costs and credit quality. The financial services company also said it intends to write off the NCML goodwill following insufficient profitability improvement. Shares in Thorn Group closed 1.68 per cent lower yesterday at $1.76.
Ex-dividends | Name | Code | Date | Amount(cents) | Franking |
| Aurora Div Income | AOD | 28/04/16 | 0.4 | 88.88 |
| Bank of Queensland. | BOQ | 28/04/16 | 38.0 | 100 |
| Steamships Trading | SST | 28/04/16 | 13.4 | 0 |
Commodities
Gold has gained $7.00 to $US1,250 an ounce for the June contract on Comex.
Silver has gained $0.18 to $17.34 for May.
Copper has fallen $0.02 to $2.22 a pound.
Oil has gained $1.29 to $US45.33 a barrel for June light crude in New York.
