The local share market is expected to open lower today following falls on Wall St overnight with weaker oil and metals prices likely to pressure energy stocks and resource companies.
On Monday the local market closed lower with the S&P/ASX 200 Index down 29 points at 4,830. The SPI200 is down 40 points.
Checking currencies at 8:40 AM the Aussie Dollar is buying 91.66 US cents, 84.57 Yen, 61.68 Euro cents and 56.18 Pence Sterling.
To what’s making company news this morning: Shares in regional bank Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Ltd (ASX:BEN) fell 1.31 per cent to $9.77 yesterday. The bank has warned that proposed new rules governing liquidity for banks will reduce profitability, increase borrower costs and make it impossible for banks to support each other. Speaking at the company’s annual general meeting Chairman Robert Johanson says mutual support was a significant help in dealing with the events of a year ago, when most Australian banks did co-operatively work to support the system and each other. CEO Mike Hirst says the bank has never been in a better position for a ratings upgrade which would help to ease funding constraints. Mr Hirst says the company’s funding risks are substantially lower than before the onset of the global financial crisis, revenue streams are more diverse and complimentary, the bank’s credit quality remains very strong and the company has identified the synergies from the merger of Adelaide Bank and Bendigo Bank with the merger largely complete. Bendigo and Adelaide Banks profits fell in 2009 after reaching a high of $198.3 million in 2008.
Shares in property investor GPT Group (ASX:GPT) lost 4.69 per cent to $0.61 yesterday. The company says it has sold the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel in Sydney for $185 million to an offshore investor. The price represents a 10 per cent discount to GPT’s June 30 valuations and an 8 per cent yield. GPT says the sale proceeds will be applied to the group’s borrowings. CEO Michael Cameron says the sale is in line with the company’s strategy to sell the assets in its Hotel/Tourism portfolio allowing it to focus on its core portfolios in the Australian retail, office and industrial/business park sectors. GPT announced that its Hotel/Tourism portfolio was for sale in July last year. GPT posted a $2.6 billion loss in 2008 after profits the four years previous.
To the ex-dividend scoreboard: And while there are no companies going ex-dividend today, coming up tomorrow we have Australian Pharmaceutical Industries, and on Friday Harvey Norman is going ex-dividend.
To international markets: Wall Street fell on Monday: The Dow Jones industrial average fell 104 points. The S&P500 Index lost 13 points and the NASDAQ also dropped 13 points.
European markets were also weaker. London’s FTSE fell 51 points, Paris declined 64 points and Frankfurt lost 98 points.
Asian markets were higher: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was closed. Tokyo’s Nikkei added 80 and China’s SSE Composite gained 2.
Looking at metals: Gold is weaker, it’s down $13.60 to US$1042.80 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver slipped 63 cents to US$17.10 and copper is down 2 cents to US$3.01.
And the price of oil fell $1.82 to US$78.68 a barrel for December light crude in New York.
