The Australian share market has finished the trading day in negative territory.
Yesterday, the local bourse rallied after investors heard that this week’s OPEC meeting resulted in a deal to cut oil supply. But that rally was short-lived.
Today, the market reacted negatively to reports that some hedge funds, which clear derivative trades with the embattled Deutsch Bank, have decided to cut their exposure by moving their money elsewhere.
Today, the S&P/ASX 200 index closed 35 points down to finish at 5,436.
Over the week the index managed to gain 5 points, so it was practically flat.
The value of trades was $6.5 billion on volume of 845 million shares at the close of trade. The top three stocks by value were BHP, CBA and ANZ.
On the futures market the SPI is down 46 points.
Looking at Wall Street, US major indexes have risen over the four trading days this week: The Dow Jones has added 0.3 per cent. Both the S&P 500 Index and NASDAQ gained 0.2 per cent. The 100 Index has added 0.4 per cent.
In economic news, the Housing Industry Association has reported that new home sales rose 6.1% in September. This is an improvement over the August result, which stated homes sales plummeted 9.7%.
Also, the Reserve Bank released August figures for private sector borrowing. In August 2016, private sector credit growth was up 0.4 percent, since the previous month. But compared to August 2015, it has grown by 5.8 percent.
As for housing borrowing, that grew 0.5 percent in August 2016. But when compared to the August 2015 figure, housing credit rose 6.5 per cent.
To company news now: The Astro Japan Property Group
(ASX:AJA) has sold one of its properties in its 29-property portfolio for $6.3 million. Astro Japan is an Australian listed company which invests in the Japanese real estate market. After this sale, the company will have around $46 million in excess cash (most of which is held in Japanese Yen) to fund more property investments.Shares in Astro Japan closed flat at $7.08.
Looking at some more headlines:
Woolworths Limited
(ASX:WOW) has confirmed that it’s currently considering whether to keep or sell off its petrol business. The supermarket giant says it has received some proposals to buy the business, but has not reached a decision yet.
Nine Entertainment Co.
(ASX:NEC) has sold its 9.99 percent stake in Southern Cross Media.
ASG Group Limited
(ASX:ASZ) has received a $349 million takeover offer from the Nomura Research Institute. ASG formed an Independent Board Committee to consider this offer, and the Committee has unanimously recommended that ASG shareholders vote in favour of the takeover.
Now, to the best and worst performers of the day: The best performing sector was Telcos adding 0.5 per cent to close at 1,863. The worst performing sector was Financials, lost 1 per cent to close at 5,917 points.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Galaxy Resources, rising 8.33 per cent to close at 33 cents. Shares in Nine Entertainment and Medibank also closed higher.
The worst performing stock was Southern Cross, dropping 13.06 per cent to close at $1.47. Shares in Western Areas and White Haven Coal also closed lower.
To commodities – The price of gold is trading at $US1,324 an ounce, and is down $14.47 over the week. Light crude is $0.67 higher at $US47.72 a barrel. The Australian dollar is buying $0.762 and is down 0.2 cents over the week.
And that’s it for the Market Wrap. I’m DC. We now leave you with a look at the markets. But in the meantime, enjoy your long weekend!
