The Australian sharemarket is expected to open stronger this morning, with Wall Street holding onto modest gains amid mixed economic data and corporate outlooks.
It was a similar story yesterday on the local market. The S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 29 points at 4,860 and the SPI200 is up 17 points.
Checking currencies at 8:35 AM the Aussie Dollar is buying 92.1 US cents, 83.44 Yen, 61.65 Euro cents and 56.61 Pence Sterling.
To what’s making company news this morning: BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP) shares rose yesterday, adding 1.3% to $38.90. BHP Billiton is believed to be on the verge of $220 million takeover deal with for Pilbara iron ore junior United Minerals. Its BHP’s first takeover bid for an Australian-listed company since it bought WMC Resources for $9.2 billion in 2005. BHP is expected to make an announcement as early as this morning. BHP Billiton’s profit highlight in 2008 with over US$15 billion.
Downer EDI (ASX:DOW) shares closed stronger yesterday, up 1.9% to $9.10. The Infrastructure and engineering group has reiterated its expectation of a 5% increase in profits this financial year. The company’s chairman told a gathering at its AGM yesterday that the company’s net profit after tax should still come in at about $200 million. Meanwhile, Downer EDI shareholders have dealt their board a blow, voting almost three to two against generous bonuses for senior executives. Downer EDI ‘s profits have been on the rise since 2007 after a fall in 2006.
To the ex-dividend scoreboard: Sigma Pharmaceuticals with a 3 cent fully franked dividend. And looking further ahead, Australian Leaders Fund and Amcom Telecommunications are among those companies going ex-dividend on Monday.
To international markets: US Markets were slightly higher. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 47 points, the S&P500 Index added 5 points and the NASDAQ was up just 1 point.
European markets were mixed. London’s FTSE is down 33 points, Paris gained 1 points and Frankfurt fell 23 points.
Asian markets were higher: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 113. Tokyo’s Nikkei added 178 points and China’s SSE Composite rose 9.
Looking at metals: the price of Gold fell $14.10 to US$1050.60 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver fell 49 cents to US$17.42 and copper rose 1 cent to US$2.86.
And the price of oil is $2.40 higher at US$77.58 a barrel for November light crude in New York.
