It has been a lack-lustre start to the trading week for the Australian share market following on from weak leads from Wall Street on Friday. The local bourse dropped at the open and has continued to wallow in negative territory in the first two hours of trade and is tracking 0.18 per cent lower at noon. The energy space is the best performer so far this session after a jump in the price of Brent Crude and LNG. Staples are the worst, with losses in supermarket giants Wesfarmers and Woolworths.
The S&P/ASX 200 index is 10 points down at 5,350. On the futures market the SPI down 10 points.
Company newsBaby Bunting Group Limited
(ASX:BBN) says it hopes to continue to open new stores in FY17, including four more before Christmas. The baby product retailer says EBITDA guidance remains unchanged for the year and is expected to be in the range of $21.5 to $24.5 million. This represents on year growth of between 15 to 31 per cent. Shares in Baby Bunting are trading up 3.64 per cent at $2.85.
YPB Group Limited
(ASX:YPB) has signed a two year master supply agreement with Vitamin supplements giant Blackmores under which its suite of brand protection and customer engagement solutions will be deployed over the Blackmores range. YPB’s protect solution is incorporated into plastics to create intelligent and protected packaging to confirm authenticity of a product. The terms of the deal are yet to be announced by the company, but YPB says the deal is an important step in helping western exporters realise the potential of Asia. Shares in YPB Group trading 16.13 higher at $0.18.
Best and worst performersThe best performing sector is Energy, gaining 1.5 per cent to 8,582. Shares in Santos have risen 3.98 per cent and trading at $4.04. Shares in Whitehaven Coal and Beach Energy are also stronger.
The worst performing sector is Staples, falling 1 per cent to 8,533. Shares in Australian Agriculture have fallen 2.6 per cent, trading at $1.70. Shares in A2 Milk and Wesfarmers are also lower.
Gold and the dollarGold is trading at $US1,210 an ounce.
The Australian dollar is buying $US0.7338.
Thanks for watching the Market at Midday, I’m CH for the Finance News Network, have a great afternoon.
