After a weak lead from Wall St at the end of last week, Aussie shares have fallen as weaker copper and oil prices drag down mining stocks and energy companies.
The S&P/ASX200 index is down 44 points at 4,552 and on the futures market the SPI 200’s down 48 points.
To business news at midday: Mining and exploration company Toro Energy Ltd (ASX:TOE) has placed its shares into a trading halt today ahead of an announcement regarding a capital raising. The uranium explorer says the raising will be conducted through a share placement. Toro expects the suspension to be in place for two days. The company went into a halt last Thursday before announcing it had signed a heads of agreement with Cameco Australia, part of the world-wide Cameco uranium group to explore and develop a project in Western Australia. Toro Energy shares in a trading halt and last traded at $0.235.
Online advertising company Seek Ltd (ASX:SEK) says it has acquired the Australian National College of Beauty. Seek subsidiary Think: Education Group completed the acquisition for 100 per cent of the specialised beauty college. In a statement on the acquisition Seek says this acquisition represents a further strengthening of Think’s capability in the high growth health and wellness sector. Seek shares fell 0.9 per cent to $5.48.
Turning now to market indices: The only sector at midday in positive territory is the Utilities index up 1 point to 4,053. Shares in Challenger Infrastructure Fund up 2.03 per cent at $1.51. Shares in APA Group and Duet Group are also higher at noon.
The worst performing sector at midday is the Financials excluding Real Estate Investment Trust index, down 71 points at 5,258. Shares in AMP down 2.81 per cent to $6.22. Shares in ANZ and NAB are also lower.
Looking to New Zealand and the NZSX50 is 5 points higher. Taking a look at the top five stocks by value on the NZSX50: Telecom of New Zealand heads the list stock steady at $2.72, followed by Fletcher Building, Sky City, Guinness Peat and New Zealand Oil and Gas.
To gold and the dollar: Gold is trading at $1003 US an ounce and the Aussie dollar is trading at 85.68 US cents.
