The local share market looks like it may open lower after a surprise drop in consumer confidence but rise in home prices lead to a mixed result on Wall St overnight.
On Tuesday the local market closed lower after weakness in the materials sector with the S&P/ASX 200 Index down 77 points at 4,754. Looking at the futures market the SPI200’s down 21 points.
Checking currencies at 8:35 AM the Aussie Dollar is buying 91.66 US cents, 84.14 Yen, 61.91 Euro cents and 55.98 Pence Sterling.
In economic news out today: the ABS consumer price index for the September quarter is due out today and the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations is to release its vacancy report.
To what’s making company news this morning: Shares in National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX:NAB) fell 0.2 per cent to $30.70 yesterday. The company this morning posted a $2.6 billion profit for the full year, down 42.9 per cent on last year’s result of $4.53 billion. Cash earnings, the banks preferred measure of profitability, fell 1.9 per cent to $3.8 billion largely due to an increase in the charge for bad and doubtful debts. Bad and doubtful debt charges increased $2.3 billion to $3.8 billion for the year. Revenue rose 9.7 per cent to $16.9 billion driven by Australia Banking business revenues, high customer demand for risk products and strong trading performance in nabCapital Markets and Treasury. NAB declared a final dividend of 73 cents a share. NAB recorded net profit of $4.53 billion in 2008 down slightly from the year before.
Shares in nickel sulphide explorer and producer Western Areas NL (ASX:WSA) declined 1.98 per cent to $4.96 yesterday. The company has reported record nickel sales for the September quarter, selling 2,782 tonnes at US$8.02 a pound. A total of 2,066 tonnes of nickel was produced at an average cost of US$2.29 a pound in the quarter. The board of Western Areas believes the company is in a strong position to benefit from strengthening nickel prices and to generate significant cash flow from its Flying Fox and Spotted Quoll mines. The company had $90.5 million at the end of the quarter. Western Areas has posted net losses in the last five years.
To the ex-dividend scoreboard: going ex-dividend today we have Australian Pharmaceutical Industries with a 2 cent fully franked dividend, and Platinum Capital with a 5 cent fully franked dividend.
To international markets: Wall Street closed mixed on Tuesday: The Dow Jones industrial average rose 14 points. The S&P500 Index fell 4 points and the NASDAQ dropped 26 points.
European markets were also mixed. London’s FTSE rose 9 points, Paris is down half a point and Frankfurt lost 7 points.
Asian markets were lower: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 420. Tokyo’s Nikkei dropped 150 and China’s SSE Composite lost 88.
Looking at metals: Gold is down $7.40 to US$1035.40 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver slipped 56 cents to US$16.54 and copper is down 1 cent to US$3.
And the price of oil rose $0.87 to US$79.55 a barrel for December light crude in New York.
