The Australian share market looks likely to open flat this morning following mixed leads from U.S. and European markets overnight. A fall in oil and metal prices may weigh on resource stocks today, however gold miners may rise with the gold price remaining close to record highs.
Australian shares have closed the session higher yesterday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 104 points at 4,696 and the SPI200 is down 6.
Checking currencies at 8:30 AM the Aussie Dollar is buying 89.13 cents, 78.94 Yen, 60.67 Euro cents and 55.83 Pence Sterling.
In economic news: The ABS releases labour force data for September today, expectations are for a rise in the unemployment rate to 6 per cent.
To what’s making company news this morning: Australian brewer Lion Nathan Ltd (ASX:LNN) shares are in a trading halt and last traded at $11.46. The company shares entered a trading halt this morning following its lodgement of a court order with ASIC in relation to its scheme of arrangement with major shareholder Kirin Holdings, for Kirin to acquire all the company’s shares. Yesterday the Federal Court of Australia approved the scheme of arrangement between Lion and Kirin, following approval by Kirin shareholders on September 17. Lion Nathan says it shares will remain in a trading halt until it applies for the termination of the official quotation of its shares on the ASX. Lion Nathan’s 2008 net profit fell slightly from the year before recording $272.7 million.
Shares in oil and gas company 3D Oil Ltd (ASX:TDO) fell 4.17 per cent to $0.23 yesterday. The company says it has identified a potentially significant oil prospect, Felix, in its 100 per cent owned VIC P57 permit in the Gippsland Basin in Bass Strait. The company says the Felix prospect is now mature and ready to drill and has the potential to contain 100 million barrels of recoverable oil. 3D Oil says its plan now is to find a farm-in partner to drill a well at the Felix prospect within the next year. 3D Oil has posted net losses over the last four years.
To the ex-dividend scoreboard: And there is only one company going ex-dividend today and that is OrotonGroup with a 25 cent fully franked dividend. Coming up tomorrow we have Felix Resources and the Seven Network.
To the international scoreboard: Wall Street closed flat overnight. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 6 points. The S&P500 Index rose 3 points and the NASDAQ added 7 points.
European markets were lower. London’s FTSE fell 29 points, Paris dropped 14 points and Frankfurt lost 17 points.
Asian markets were higher: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 430. Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 108 points and China’s SSE Composite was closed.
Looking at metals: the price of Gold rose $4.70 to US$1044.40 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver rose 21 cents to US$17.50 and copper declined 1 cent to US$2.78.
And the price of oil is fell $1.31 to US$69.57 a barrel for November light crude in New York.
