Aus shares close 0.8% lower

Market Reports

by Clive Tompkins

It has been a down day on the local market following a soft lead from US on Friday and news of the resignation of Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi after losing a referendum Closer to home NZ Prime Minister John Key also announcement his retirement after 8 years in the job.

The local bourse opened lower and then traded within a 20 point range closing 0.8% lower. The Health Care and Consumer Discretionary stocks were the biggest drag on the market with Utitlies going the other way.

At the closing bell the S&P/ASX 200 index closed 44 points lower to finish at 5,400.

The value of trades was $4.8 billion on volume of 776 million shares at the close of trade. The top three stocks by value were BHP Billiton Limited (ASX:BHP), Westpac Banking Corporation (ASX:WBC) and Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX:CBA).

On the futures market the SPI was 46 points down.

Company news

TradeMe (ASX:TME) has sold its accommodation website Travelbug and online booking engine BookIt for an undisclosed amount to Travel Booking Services 2016 LP (“TBS”), a limited partnership with investors that include the founders of the Torpedo7 and 1-day ecommerce businesses. TradeMe (ASX:TME) CEO Jon Macdonald said the sale was taken to focus on other opportunities at TradeMe.  

Shares in TradeMe closed 0.86 per cent lower at $4.60. 

Duet Group (ASX:DUE) has confirmed it has received an unsolicited cash takeover offer of $3.00 per share from Hong Kong based global infrastructure company, Cheung Kong Infrastructure. Duet Group is evaluating the proposal and has advised shareholders to take no action at this stage given there is no certainty the proposal will proceed further.

Bapcor Limited (ASX:BAP) has announced it will increase its offer for Hellaby Holdings to NZ$3.60 per share. Bapcor made a bid for the automotive parts business in late September with an offer of NZ$3.30 per share.

And GTN Limited (ASX:GTN) has announced it will acquire US based Radiate Media for $15 million and look to raise $60 million to fund its US expansion. Radiate Media is one of the leading short form advertising platforms in the US, with an advertising inventory of approximately 2.7 million spots.

Best and worst performers

The best performing sector was Utilities adding 3.2 per cent to close at 7496. The worst performing sector was Healthcare, losing 2 per cent to close at 19105 points.

The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Duet, rising 16.6 per cent to close at $2.74. Shares in Alumina and Medibank Private also closed higher.

The worst performing stock was Galaxy, dropping 7.37 per cent to close at $0.44. Shares in Orocobre and Webjet also closed lower. 

Commodities

Gold is trading at $US1176 an ounce. Light crude is 60 cents higher at $US51.68 a barrel. The Australian dollar is buying 74.52 US cents.
 

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