Australian shares are expected to open higher as US stocks rose on Friday on encouraging earnings news from major retailers and on higher metals prices.
The local share market closed lower on Friday, dragged down by the top miners and the major banks. The S&P/ASX 200 Index is down 42 points at 4,706. Looking at the futures market the SPI200’s up 28 points.
Checking currencies at 8:30 AM the Aussie Dollar is buying 93.44 US cents, 83.69 Yen, 62.59 Euro cents and 55.89 Pence Sterling.
In company news this morningAMP (ASX:AMP) shares closed lower on Friday, slipping 0.79% to $6.30. AMP has announced a joint venture with China Life Insurance Group to co-operate in areas including asset management and pensions. The deal with the world’s biggest insurer opens the door to the Chinese market and provides the opportunity for AMP to expand its business globally. It also adds weight to AMP’s proposal last week to buy the Australian and New Zealand units of Axa Asia Pacific Holdings as it seeks to expand in the Asia Pacific region. AMP posted a net profit of $580 million in 2008.
Myer (ASX:MYR) shares closed weaker on Friday, down 0.26% to $3.91. Taxpayers face the prospect of having to pay thousands of dollars in court costs and damages as a result of the Tax Commissioner's attempt to grab almost $700 million from the float of the department store. The court action triggered by the ATO's move against private equity group TPG and the profits it generated from the float of Myer last week, will begin in the Supreme Court as early as this morning, as opposing parties and the Myer Family Office fight over frozen bank accounts, tax claims and client losses.
Checking ex-dividends and going today is Telecom New Zealand with a 4.13 cent unfranked dividend.
Overseas now and Wall Street closed stronger on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 73 points. The S&P500 Index added 6 points and the NASDAQ gained 19 points.
European markets were mixed. London’s FTSE rose 20 points, Paris down 2 points and Frankfurt rose 23.
Asian markets were mixed: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng advanced 156 points. Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 34 and the Shanghai Composite rose 15 points.
Looking at metals: Gold jumped $10.20 to US$1,116.80 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver added 13 cents to US$17.39 and for the March contract, copper is up 3 cents to US$3.00.
And the price of oil is down 59 cents to US$76.35 a barrel for December light crude in New York.
