The Australian share market is expected to open higher today following strong leads from world markets and higher commodity prices.
Australian shares rallied yesterday. The S&PASX200 closed 73 points higher at 4,769 while on the futures market, the SPI200’s up 20.
Checking currencies at 8:30 AM the Aussie Dollar is buying 90.64 cents, 80.14 Yen, 61.3 Euro cents and the Aussie dollar has soared to a 25-year high against the British pound and is buying 56.39 Pence Sterling.
To company news this morning: Newcrest Mining (ASX:NCM) shares closed flat yesterday at $35.16. The Australian Financial Review reports Newmont Mining might be preparing a hostile bid for Newcrest Mining. The newspaper says the highly speculated gold merger has been talked about as a “dream deal” for years. The combination of the two would create an unrivaled player in gold and copper. Newcrest Mining’s 2009 profit was $248 million.
Fairfax Media (ASX:FXJ) shares closed higher yesterday, up 6.65% to $1.68. There are reports of an imminent truce to end the infighting at Fairfax Media over who will take over at the helm of the media company. Roger Corbett is reportedly now set to be elected as the next chairman at a board meeting next week following talks with major shareholder Marinya Media in Sydney yesterday. Marinya had previously stated that it wouldn’t support the re-election of chairman Ron Walker, while Mr Corbett was among the independent directors to back Mr Walker. Fairfax Media posted a $380 million loss in 2009.
To the ex-dividend scoreboard: Among those companies going today are Felix Resources with a 50 cent fully franked dividend and the Seven Network with a 17 cent fully franked dividend.
To the international scoreboard: Wall Street rose again overnight. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 61 points, the S&P500 Index rose 8 points and the NASDAQ added 14 points.
European markets were higher. London’s FTSE rose 46 points, Paris added 50 points and Frankfurt gained 76 points.
Asian markets were also higher: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 251. Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 33 points and China’s SSE Composite was closed yesterday.
Looking at metals: the price of Gold rose $11.90 to settle at US$1056.30 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver rose 32 cents to US$17.82 and copper rose 12 cents to US$2.90.
And the price of oil is $2.12 higher to US$71.69 a barrel for November light crude in New York.
