The Australian share market is likely to follow Wall St’s rally over night and open higher this morning with higher base and precious metals prices and a rise in the price of oil likely to boost resource stocks today.
The local market closed lower on Monday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 44 points at 4,793 and the SPI200 is up 43 points.
Checking currencies at 8:35 AM the Aussie Dollar has rallied above the US92 cent mark to open at its highest point in more than a year after comments from the RBA that fuelled the possibility for a further rate hike next month. The Aussie dollar is currently buying 92.91 US cents, 84.21 Yen, 62.11 Euro cents and 56.61Pence Sterling.
In economic news out today: The minutes from the RBA’s October 6th board meeting are to be released, and the ABS is to publish data on international merchandise imports for September.
To what’s making company news this morning: Shares in financial advisory firm Bell Financial Group Ltd (ASX:BFG) gained 8.49 per cent to $1.15 yesterday. The company has seen its profit rise 52 per cent in the nine months to September 30. Bell Financials unaudited profit before tax for the nine months to September 30 came to $23.4 million, a 10 per cent increase on the full year 2008 audited result. For the September quarter unaudited profit came to $13.4 million. The company says the result is due to an increase in capital raisings as a large number of companies looked to tap the market for funds. Looking at the past five years Bell Financial Group’s profits have been inconsistent.
Shares in base and precious metals explorer Moly Mines (ASX:MOL) dropped 4.3 per cent to $1.23 yesterday. The company says it has entered into an agreement with Hanlong Mining Investment, in which the Chinese company is to provide US$200 million in equity and funding to Moly. Under the agreement Hanlong has also committed to provide or arrange US$500 million debt funding for the 10 million tonne per annum Spinifex Ridge Molybdenum/Copper project. The agreement will give Hanlong, a subsidiary of privately owned Sichuan Hanlong Group, around a 54 per cent holding in Moly Mines. Moly Mines posted a profit in 2008 after losses the four years previous.
To the ex-dividend scoreboard: Going ex-dividend today we have New Hope with a 77.25 cent fully franked dividend and Wilson Investment with a 2 cent fully franked dividend.
To international markets: US Markets closed higher on Monday. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 96 points. The S&P500 Index gained 10 points and the NASDAQ finished 20 points higher.
European markets were also stronger. London’s FTSE is up 91 points; Paris added 65 points and Frankfurt rose 109 points.
Asian markets were mixed: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng advanced 271. Tokyo’s Nikkei fell 21 points and China’s SSE gained 62.
Looking at metals: the price of Gold added $6.60 to US$1058.10 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver gained 21 cents to US$17.63 and copper rose 12 cents to US$2.97.
And the price of oil is $1.08 higher at US$79.61 a barrel for November light crude in New York.
