It has been a disappointing start to the week for the Australian share market, following on from weak leads from Wall Street on Friday, on the back of more Fed rate hike speculation. The local bourse plunged at the open and remains underwater two hours into the session tracking 0.8 per cent lower at noon. While all sectors are in the red the financials space, namely the big four banks are proving to be the biggest drag on the market so far with NAB and Westpac both shedding around 1 per cent. We are also seeing losses in the materials and energy sectors after a fall in the price of commodities overnight.
The S&P/ASX 200 index is 45 points down at 5,470. On the futures market the SPI is 37 points lower.
Company newsWellard Limited
(ASX:WLD) has gone into a trading halt pending the release of the company’s 4E preliminary final report. There is speculation the report could contain asset write-downs. The livestock exporter’s share price has fallen around 75 per cent since it listed on the ASX last December. Shares in Wellard last traded at $0.33.
AWE Limited
(ASX:AWE) has announced that commercial gas sales from Stage 1A of the Waitsia gas project have commenced and that the development was delivered on time and within the approved budget of $18 million. The Waitsia gas project is operated by AWE and located 367 kilometres north of Perth. The company says the project will deliver significant revenue growth for AWE from 2020. Shares in AWE are trading down 0.72 per cent at $0.69.
Best and worst perfomersTo the best and worst performers: The sector with the least losses in Telcos, losing 0.1 per cent to 1,961. Shares in Telstra have risen 0.09 per cent and trading at $5.30. Shares in Spark NZ and TPG Telcom are lower.
The worst performing sector is Energy, falling 1.7 per cent to 8,454. Shares in Woodside have fallen 3.07 per cent, trading at $28.77. Shares in Oil Search and Caltex are also lower.
IPOsSilver Heritage Group Limited
(ASX:SVH) started trading today. The casino operator floated with an issue price of $0.40, opened at $0.40 and is currently trading at $0.40.
Gold and the dollarGold is trading at $US1,317 an ounce.
The Australian dollar is buying $US0.7544.
