The Australian share market is set for a lower opening this morning, following a weak lead from Wall Street.
Overnight, US equities fell sharply, with the biggest losses coming from the health care and biotech shares. The US was also weighed down by a disappointing start to earnings season as aluminium maker, Alcoa, posted lower-than-expected quarterly results.
Energy stocks also fell, on the back of negative sentiment in the oil market. To recap, on Monday, oil rose after Russian President, Vladmir Putin, said Russia would cooperate with OPEC to cap oil production. But on Tuesday, oil prices fell slightly after Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil producer, said it will not cap production.
MarketsWall Street finished lower, with the Dow Jones slipping 1.1 per cent to 18,129. The S&P 500 was down 1.2 per cent to close at 2,137 and the NASDAQ lost 1.5 per cent to close at 5,247.
European markets also finished lower: London’s FTSE was down 0.4 per cent, Paris lost 0.6 per cent and Frankfurt slipped 0.4%.
Asian markets finished mixed: the Nikkei gained almost 1 percent, the Hang Seng was down 1.3%, and the Shanghai Composite was up 0.6 per cent.
The Australian share market closed flat yesterday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index was up 4 points to close at 5,480. On the futures market, this morning, the SPI is down 45 points.
CurrenciesThe Australian Dollar at 7:30AM was buying $US75.4 cents, 62.16 Pence, 78 Yen and 68.21 Euro cents.
Local economic newsThe Westpac-Melbourne Institute’s Consumer Sentiment Survey will be released later today.
Company newsCimic Group Ltd
(ASX:CIM) has signed a deal with Main Roads Western Australia, known as the ‘Roe 8 project’. This involves designing and constructing a 5-kilometre highway extension to the Kwinana Freeway in Perth. The contract is worth $330 million, and expected to generate $235 in revenue for the company. The company is expecting construction to be finished in 4 years – by early 2020. Shares in Cimic closed 1.42% higher at $27.86.
Eureka Group
(ASX:EGH) has made a decision on what to do with the 80-unit Terranora Village that it purchased in November, last year, for $7 million. The company will subdivide the site into 3 separate titles, renovate and reconfigure the existing 80 units into 61 individually strata-titled units, then sell them. The company will also sell 3.5 hectares of vacant land on this site, and expects to earn $4 million from that sale. Shares in Eureka closed 1.37% higher at 74 cents.
Ex-dividendsOne company is going ex-dividend today. Konekt
(ASX:KKT) will pay a fully-franked dividend of 0.5 cents per share.
CommoditiesGold was down $5.80 at $US1,255 an ounce.
Silver has lost 17 cents to $17.48.
Copper is down 1 cent at $2.19 a pound.
Oil is down 49 cents to $US51.25 a barrel.
