Local share market is stronger at midday following Wall St’s positive end to the week last Friday and lifted by gains in the miners on higher metals prices. The price of gold hit another record high sending the gold miners like Lihir Gold up in trade this morning.
The S&P/ASX200 index is 31 points higher at 4,737 and on the futures market the SPI 200’s up 26 points.
In company news: Manufacturer of small electrical appliances and homewares Breville Group Ltd (ASX:BRG) has rejected a takeover offer from household appliances manufacturer GUD Holdings Ltd (ASX:GUD). Breville chairman John Schmoll says the group has carefully assessed GUD’s offer and each director has decided to reject the offer in relation to their own shares in Breville. The board unanimously recommends shareholders reject GUD’s offer. Both the Breville board and an independent expert believe that the offer is not enough and that GUD can pay significantly more for the company. GUD is offering between $2.20 and $2.25 per Breville share assuming it gets 50.1 per cent control and between $2.57 and $2.66 if it gets 100 per cent control. Breville shares lost 1.32 per cent to $2.25 and shares in GUD Holdings gained 1.61 per cent to $8.86.
Agribusiness company Elders Ltd (ASX:ELD) has reported a loss of $466.4 million for the 15 months to September 30. The company has already released results for the 12 months to June 30 but has decided to change its financial year close to September. Elders says its underlying loss for the period was $51.8 million with revenue down 11 per cent to $3.035 billion. Managing director Malcolm Jackman says as expected trading conditions have continued to be challenging and the company’s results for the fifth quarter are right on track with what it forecast for the period. Elders shares rose 2.94 per cent to $0.175.
Turning now to market indices: The best performing sector at midday is the Materials index, up 197 points to 11,933. Shares in Bannerman Resources advanced 10% to $1.21. Shares in Perseus Mining and Iron Ore Holdings are also higher.
The worst performing sector at midday is the Financials excluding Real Estate Investment Trust index, down 17 points to 5,546. Shares in ANZ fell 1.33% to $22.18. Shares in Westpac and NAB are also lower at noon.
Looking to New Zealand and the NZSX50 is 7 points higher. Turning to the top 5 stocks by turnover on the NZSX50: At the top of the list is Telecom of New Zealand, stock up 0.39 per cent at $2.57. Following the Telco is Fletcher Building, Seeka Kiwifruit Industries, Freightways and AMP.
To gold and the dollar: Gold is trading at US$1,123.70 an ounce and the Aussie dollar is trading at 93.23 US cents.
