The Australian share market is likely to open higher this morning after a strong lead from the U.S. overnight. Stronger commodities and metal prices may lift resource stocks today and help support market gains.
The local share market finished stronger on Tuesday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 69 points higher at 4,524 and on the futures market the SPI200’s up 11 points.
Checking currencies at 8:30AM the Aussie dollar opened at a fresh one year high this morning and is currently buying 86.19 US cents, 79.56 Yen, 59.49 Euro cents and 52.25 Pence Stirling.
In economic news: ABS is to release housing finance data and retail trade data for July today, the Westpac/Melbourne Institute survey of consumer sentiment for September is due out and the Seek employment index for August.
In company news about this morning: Shares in Australian airline Qantas Airways Ltd (ASX:QAN) rose 0.82 per cent to $2.45 yesterday. The airline has confirmed that it is in talks with the government of Fiji to sell its 46 per cent holding in Air Pacific. According to a report in the Australian Qantas spokesman David Epstein confirmed that the Air Pacific stake is formally under review and that Qantas was indeed in talks with the Fijian Government about possible terms. The paper says Qantas is lobbying for capacity to introduce its budget offshoot Jetstar to the route and plans to start daily services between Sydney and Nadi from next April. Qantas’ profit in 2008 reached close to $1 billion, a five year high.
Shares in electricity producer Energy Developments Ltd (ASX:ENE) fell 4.49 per cent to $2.55 yesterday. The company has confirmed that an unnamed private equity fund has provided a proposal to acquire 100 per cent of Energy Developments at an offer price of $2.80 a share. The company says it has consulted with its major shareholders and has invited the party into an exclusive confirmatory due diligence process, due to commence shortly. Energy Developments says it makes no recommendations at this stage concerning the suitability of the proposal and there is no assurance that this process will result in an offer capable of being put to shareholders for consideration. Energy Developments also says it remains in discussions with an international infrastructure specialist fund manager in relation to the potential sale of the company’s UK and French landfill gas power generation assets. Energy Developments 2009 net profit was a long way off its result in 2008.
Checking the ex-dividend scoreboard, and among those companies going ex-dividend today we have Data#3 with a 30 cent fully franked dividend, Freight Links Express Holdings with a 1.5 cent fully franked dividend, Mineral Resources with a 12.35 cent fully franked dividend and Patties Foods with a 2.5 cent fully franked dividend.
To the international scoreboard: U.S. Markets closed higher on Tuesday. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 56 points. The S&P500 Index up 9 points and the NASDAQ rose 19 points.
European markets were also stronger: London’s FTSE rose 14 points, Paris up 8 points and Frankfurt added 18 points.
Asian markets were higher: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 441 points. Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 72 points and China’s SSE Composite added 49.
Looking at Metals: Gold reached an 18 month high rising above US$1000 overnight, this morning it is up $3.10 at US$999.80 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver gained 23 cents to US$16.51 and copper is 9 cents higher at US$2.96.
And finally, oil jumped $3.08 to US$71.10 a barrel for October light crude in New York.
