Well Aussie investors haven’t had much of a trading session today after the ASX didn’t open til 1130 due to “technical issues”. Chi-X was also affected by the problem, so naturally the session was characterised by low volumes and investors holding off until the issues are fixed. At the end of the day the ASX closed about 2 hours early and flat or around 0.06% lower.
The S&P/ASX 200 index closed 2 points down to finish at 5,295.
The value of trades was $1.1 billion on volume of 184 million shares at the close of trade. The top three stocks by value were ANZ Banking Group
(ASX:ANZ), Commonwealth Bank of Australia
(ASX:CBA) and Macquarie Group
(ASX:MQG) .
On the futures market the SPI is 1 point down.
Company news Without a doubt ASX Limited
(ASX:ASX) has been the company in the spotlight today. The bourse operator failed to open this morning at 10am leaving millions of investors and finance professionals in the lurch. The ASX blamed technical issues for the outage and brought stocks back online from 11.30, but those from Group 4 (N-R) didn’t commence trade until well after lunch. The ASX suspended trade at 2pm this afternoon after continuing to deal with technical glitches. The ASX says it will provide an update before the commencement of trade tomorrow. Shares in ASX closed 1.38 per cent down at $47.78.
Wellard Limited
(ASX:WLD) has announced its largest shareholder WGH Holdings, controlled by Wellard CEO Mr Mauro Balzarni will transfer 66.32 million shares to Chinese textile company Fulida Group Holdings.
Newcrest Limited
(ASX:NCM) has announced it will sell its 50 percent interest in the Hidden Valley gold mine in PNG to South Africa’s Harmony Gold Mining Company.
Cardno Limited
(ASX:CDD) has announced it has agreed to sell its software business XP Solutions for US$49 million to private equity firm EQT.
Best and worst performersThe best performing sector was Materials adding 0.5 per cent to close at 8,560. The worst performing sector was Consumer Discretionaries, losing 0.6 per cent to close at 2,196 points.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Independence Group, rising 4.09 per cent to close at $3.82. Shares in Japara Healthcare and Syrah Resources also closed higher.
The worst performing stock was Blackmores, dropping 3.7 per cent to close at $124.16. Shares in Bellamy’s and APN News and Media also closed lower.
Commodities and the dollarGold is trading at $US1,316 an ounce.
Light crude is $0.90 down at $US43.62 a barrel.
The Australian dollar is buying $US0.7542.
