Following the U.S and European markets into the black, Aussie shares are higher at midday, as strong copper and oil prices boost resource stocks like top miner BHP and energy company Woodside Petroleum.
The S&P/ASX200 index is up 51 points at 4,715 and on the futures market the SPI 200’s up 39 points.
In economic news: The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations skilled vacancies index rose 1.2 per cent in September to a read of 38.6 points. However the result was 50.4 per cent lower than September last year.
Making headlines at midday: Engineering and construction company Clough Ltd (ASX:CLO) CEO John Smith says the outlook in the short term is mixed, saying that the company lags the economic cycle by about 12 - 18 months. In the release of the company's annual report Mr Smith says the downturn coupled with the declining oil price caused a period of low commitment to new projects particularly in offshore oil and gas and this will cause a soft market for all floating equipment related businesses in 2010. However he says in the medium to long term with a recovered oil price this sector will return to growth. Clough shares lost 0.52 per cent to $0.965.
Agribusiness products company Ridley Corporation Ltd (ASX:RIC) says it has successfully formulated a new feed diet for Southern Blue Fin Tuna. The company says a commercial scale trial on ‘catch and grow’ Southern Blue Fin Tuna was conducted at the Port Lincoln premises of Clean Seas Tuna Ltd (ASX:CSS). The trial found that the new feed could be fed to juveniles from capture rights through to harvest size and achieve impressive growth rates superior to traditional frozen wild fish diet rates. Ridley Corporation shares rose 1.88 per cent to $1.085.
Turning now to market indices: All sectors are in positive territory at midday however the sector making the most gains is the Energy index up 342 points to 16,648. Shares in Linc Energy advanced 5.59 per cent to $1.985. Shares in Whitehaven Coal and Woodside Petroleum are also higher at noon.
The sector with the smallest gains at midday is the Health Care index, up 2 points at 8,780. Shares in ResMed lost 1.7 per cent to $5.21. Shares in Blackmores and CSL are also lower.
Looking to New Zealand and the NZSX50 is up 9 points. Taking a look at the top five stocks by turnover on the NZSX50: Top of the list is Telecom of New Zealand, stock up 0.38 per cent at $2.62. Followed by South Canterbury Finance, Sky City, Air New Zealand and Fletcher Building.
To gold and the dollar: Gold is trading at $1015.95 US an ounce and the Aussie dollar is trading at 87.54 US cents.
