The local share market looks like it may be in for a strong start this morning following a rally on Wall St overnight. Higher oil and metals prices on a weaker US dollar are likely to give resource stocks a boost today and help to support the market. Gold miners are also likely to see good gains today on the back of record gold prices.
The local share market closed higher on Monday with the S&P/ASX 200 Index up 49 points at 4,755. Looking at the futures market the SPI200’s up 49 points.
Checking currencies at 8:40 AM the Aussie Dollar is buying 93.76 US cents, 83.58 Yen, 62.62 Euro cents and 55.72 Pence Sterling.
In economic news: the minutes from the RBA’s November board meeting are out today, as well as the Melbourne Institute wages report for the November quarter and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry small business survey.
In company news this morning: Shares in Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX:ANZ) fell 1.33 per cent to $22.18 yesterday. It has been revealed that CEO Mike Smith was the highest-paid bank boss last year after taking home a cool $10.9 million. The next top paid boss out of the big banks is Westpac’s Gail Kelly who took home $10.6 million, followed by Commonwealth Bank CEO Ralph Norris with $9.2 million and far outweighing NAB chief Cameron Clyne who took home $5.2 million in cash and shares. Remuneration details of the big banks CEO’s are being released and scrutinised more closely as regulators globally move to take a tougher stance on executive pay. ANZ recorded net profit of $2.9 billion in 2009.
Shares in dual listed gold miner Allied Gold Ltd (ASX:ALD) dropped 2.44 per cent to $0.40 yesterday. The company says it plans to raise $158 million to fund the development of its Gold Ridge Project in the Solomons. Allied Gold announced a scrip-only takeover offer for Australian Solomons Gold in September, owner of the Gold Ridge Project. The company says it will allocate $110 million Canadian dollars of the raising to development of the project which was halted in 2000. The gold miner says the final terms of the offer will be determined at the time of pricing. Allied Gold has posted net losses over the last five years.
Checking ex-dividends and going today is Whitefield with an 8.5 cent fully franked dividend.
Overseas now and Wall Street closed stronger on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 136 points. The S&P500 Index added 16 points and the NASDAQ gained 30 points.
European markets were also higher. London’s FTSE rose 86 points, Paris gained 57 points and Frankfurt advanced 118.
Asian markets were higher: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 390 points. Tokyo’s Nikkei rose 21 and the Shanghai Composite gained 87 points.
Looking at metals: Gold jumped $22.70 to US$1,139.40 an ounce for the December contract on Comex with a weaker US dollar boosting demand for the precious metal. Gold reached a fresh high of US$1143 overnight. Silver added $1.03 to US$18.41 and for the March contract, copper is up 13 cents to US$3.13.
And the price of oil is up $2.55 to US$78.90 a barrel for December light crude in New York.
