Australian shares lost mild ground today after a negative lead from Wall Street overnight. Local energy and telecommunications stocks performed well but failed to overcome weakness in financial and materials on lower metal prices overnight.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 8 points lower at 4,839 while on the futures market, the SPI200’s down 1.
To company news around this afternoon: Qantas (ASX:QAN) said at its annual general meeting today that it is seeing some positive signs of recovery in the global economy despite the outlook remaining uncertain and has seen no further deterioration in its business. Chairman Leigh Clifford told shareholders that the company is well placed to emerge strongly from the downturn and seize opportunities. Qantas also defended its payment to outgoing CEO Geoff Dixon saying it was a contractual obligation. Qantas shares closed flat at $2.99 today.
AXA Asia Pacific Holdings (ASX:AXA) said today that total group funds under management, administration and advice fell 2 per cent in the nine months to September 30 while Australian wealth management net flows were down 81% to $376.2 million. AXA Asia Pacific Holdings shares lost 0.64% to $4.66 today.
Also making news: Foster's Group (ASX:FGL) said that after currency adjustments, its first quarter results are in line with expectations but also said that sales revenue was slightly lower than the year before.
Australian Pharmaceutical Industries (ASX:API) has announced plans to raise $150 million to reduce debt and strengthen its balance sheet and also reported a net profit for the year to August 31 that improved 22% to $18.6 million.
Taking a look at some of the stories covered in our earlier reports: BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP) said first quarter iron ore production increased 1 per cent compared to a year ago to a new quarterly record of 30.106 million tonnes. In other BHP news, the miner has declared force majeure on uranium and copper supplies from its stricken Olympic Dam mine.
Centro Properties (ASX:CNP) directors and executives have had legal action launched against them by the ASIC which is claiming the company’s 2007 accounts failed to correctly classify more than $2 billion of debt. ASIC is seeking to have the executives disqualified from managing companies and fined by the courts.
In the best and worst performers: The best performing sector at close was the Telecommunications index, up 20 points at 1,105 while the worst performing was the Real Estate Investment Trust index; which lost 8 points to 954.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ ASX200 was Virgin Blue and shares rose 8.82 per cent to $0.555. Shares in Alesco Corporation and Aquila Resources also gained.
The worst performing stock was Babcock & Brown Infrastructure with shares falling 5 per cent to 3.8 cents. Shares in Viterra and Minara Resources also closed lower today.
In commodities, gold is trading at $1,057.40 U.S an ounce and light crude is down 35 cents at $78.77 U.S a barrel.
