A late afternoon rally has seen the local share market propel itself into positive territory after a topsy-turvy session, in the end closing the day 0.39 per cent higher. At the start of the day it was looking like the local bourse was going to follow Wall Street’s weak leads, but bargain hunting in the banking space was responsible for a market turnaround. Not a good day however for the energy space which continued to be heavily sold off after another fall in the oil price overnight; Santos the biggest casualty shedding more than 5 per cent.
The S&P/ASX 200 index closed 20 points up to finish at 5,228.
The value of trades was $6.2 billion on volume of 930 million shares at the close of trade. The top three stocks by value were Commonwealth Bank of Australia
(ASX:CBA), Telstra Corporation Limited
(ASX:TLS) and Westpac Banking Corporation
(ASX:WBC).
On the futures market the SPI is 38 points up.
Economic newsConsumer confidence has edged slightly higher in September according to the monthly consumer confidence index from Westpac and the Melbourne Institute. The survey found that sentiment rose by 0.3 per cent in September compared to a 2 per cent increase in August.
Company newsSouthern Cross Media
(ASX:SXL) says Southern Cross Austereo has entered into a new six year agreement with AFL for the radio broadcast of AFL games on the Triple M Network and affiliated regional stations. AFL will be broadcast on 40 stations with Triple M footy calling every AFL game for the season. Shares in Southern Cross Media closed 3 per cent up at $1.54.
Financial markets software company, IRESS
(ASX:IRE), has entered a deal to acquire a South African company, which operates in a similar industry.
Beadell Resources Ltd
(ASX:BDR), which owns the Tucano gold mine in Brazil, has signed a Deed to increase grid power supply from current 1mw to initially 5 mw by the end of 2016.
Air New Zealand
(ASX:AIZ) says it carried 4.4% more passengers in August 2016, compared to August 2015.
Best and worst performersThe best performing sector was Telcos adding 2.4 per cent to close at 1,866. The worst performing sector was Energy, losing 1.4 per cent to close at 7,896 points.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Platinum Asset Management, rising 9.63 per cent to close at $5.35. Shares in Whitehaven Coal and FlexiGroup also closed higher.
The worst performing stock was Seven West Media, dropping 6.45 per cent to close at $0.72. Shares in Santos and CYBG also closed lower.
Commodities and the dollarGold is trading at $US1,322 an ounce.
Light crude is $1.36 lower at $US45.48 a barrel.
The Australian dollar is buying $US0.7476.
