The local share market is lower at midday following losses on Wall St at the end of last week. The major banks like ANZ and NAB and top miners such as BHP and Rio Tinto are leading the declines.
The S&P/ASX200 index is down 50 points at 4, 787 and on the futures market the SPI 200’s down 62 points.
Making headlines at midday: Shares in Oil Search Ltd (ASX:OSH) went into a trading halt this morning pending an announcement in relation to a share placement to institutional investors. The company is believed to be looking to raise around $900 million to help fund its huge share of the Papua New Guinea LNG project after it announced that it had terminated the sale of its interest in PDL2, including its 3.5 per cent interest in PNG LNG project to International Petroleum Investment Corporation. The sale of this interest in PNG LNG would have helped fund the company’s share of the project. The trading halt is expected to remain in place until it is in a position to make an announcement or the commencement of trade on Wednesday. Oil Search shares last traded at $6.75.
Oncology treatment company Sirtex Medical Ltd (ASX:SRX) has today announced its first dividend on the back of strong profit growth. Directors have declared a dividend of 2 cents a share plus a special dividend of 5 cents a share, following a 68 per cent rise in operating profit to $5.47 million for the September quarter, compared to $3.25 million for the same quarter last year. The company reported a 34 per cent rise in revenue to $16.47 million compared to $12.29 million recorded for the same period a year ago. Shares in Sirtex Medical rose 0.87 per cent to $5.77.
Turning now to market indices: The best performing sector at midday is the Telecommunications index which gained 6 points to 1,086. Shares in IINet advanced 3.57 per cent to $2.03. Shares in Pipe Networks are higher while shares in Telecom of New Zealand are flat.
The worst performing sector at midday is the Financials Excluding Real Estate Investment Trust index, down 100 points at 5,755. Shares in ANZ lost 2.85 per cent to $23.86. Shares in Lend Lease Corporation and NAB are also lower.
Looking to New Zealand and the NZSX50 is up 13 points. Taking a look at the top five stocks by turnover on the NZSX50: Telecom of New Zealand tops the list, stock up 0.39 per cent at $2.56, followed by Fletcher Building, Westpac, PGG Wrightson Ltd, and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare.
To gold and the dollar: Gold is trading at $1050.25 US an ounce and the Aussie dollar is trading at 91.29US cents.
