The local share market is higher at midday, strong earnings results and retail sales data out of the U.S. helping to give the market a boost.
Financial stocks gained on JPMorgan Chases better than expected earnings results and Energy stocks rose on higher oil prices.
The S&P/ASX200 index is up 49 points at 4,880 and on the futures market the SPI 200’s up 52 points.
Making headlines at midday: Bank of Queensland Ltd (ASX:BOQ) has reported a 2 per cent rise in net profit for fiscal 2009 to $141.1 million. Cash profit rose 21 per cent to a record $187.4 million compared to $155.4 million in 2008. Managing Director David Liddy says the company’s asset quality remains sound, also saying that the bank expects bad loans to peak in the coming financial year, but that the company has increased its general reserve for credit losses to account for this and the bank’s losses to date are still tracking well below its larger competitors. Bank of Queensland declared a final dividend of 26 cents, down from 38 cents in 2008. Shares in Bank of Queensland rose 3 per cent to $12.70.
Infrastructure and engineering company Downer EDI Ltd (ASX:DOW) says it maintains its earnings guidance for fiscal 2010 and the company’s order book stands at over $16 billion. Chairman Peter Jollie told shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting that the company has made significant progress in its journey of improvement across the business and aims to achieve continued progress and growth throughout 2010 and beyond. CEO Geoff Knox says the company’s balance sheet is solid and Downer remains comfortably ahead of its debt refinancing program. In August Downer reported a 14 per cent rise in net profit for the full year. Downer EDI shares fell 1.34 per cent to $8.81.
Turning now to market indices: Majority of sectors are in positive territory at midday however the sector with the biggest gain is the Real Estate Investment Trust index which gained 13 points to 949. Shares in the Commonwealth Property Office Fund advanced 1.99 per cent to $1.025. Shares in Westfield Group and Mirvac Group are also higher at midday.
The worst performing sector at midday is the Utilities index, down 4 points at 4,270. Shares in Energy World Corp lost 2.73 per cent to $0.535. Shares in Challenger Infrastructure Fund and Spark Infrastructure Group are also lower.
Looking to New Zealand and the NZSX50 is 5 points higher. Taking a look at the top five stocks by turnover on the NZSX50: Telecom of New Zealand is the top stock by turnover, stock down 1.53 per cent at $2.58. The Telco is followed by Fletcher Building, Sky City, Contact Energy and South Canterbury Finance.
To gold and the dollar: Gold is trading at $1064.20 US an ounce and the Aussie dollar is trading at 91.9US cents.
