The local share market is likely to open lower this morning following falls on Wall St overnight due to a stronger dollar and signs of uncertainty with the economic recovery. Softer commodities are also likely to weigh on resource stocks today.
The local share market closed higher yesterday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 10 points at 4,749. Looking at the futures market the SPI200’s down 45 points.
Checking currencies at 8:35 AM the Aussie Dollar is buying 91.97 US cents, 81.9 Yen, 61.66 Euro cents and 55.21 Pence Sterling.
In company news this morning: Shares in regional lender Bank of Queensland Ltd (ASX:BOQ) declined 1.47 per cent to $11.36 yesterday. The bank says it is on the lookout for small acquisitions to boost its retail business and help it to expand its reach outside of the Queensland market. The company says it intends to spend some of the $340 million of capital raised in August on possible acquisitions. According to a report in The Australian, CEO Ram Kangatharan says the bank will be looking at housing lending and small to medium enterprise lending but is not interested in increasing the company’s risk by getting into corporate lending. Mr Kangatharan says Bank of Queensland is in a position to make small acquisitions, less than $100 million of equity value, which he says from a balance sheet perspective is up to $1.5 billion. Bank of Queensland’s profits have been gradually rising over the last four years.
Shares in gold miner St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) gained 1.43 per cent to $0.36 yesterday. The miner says it’s on track to achieve its forecast guidance for gold production this financial year and says that the company’s growth will be driven by its Gwalia mine. The company told shareholders at its annual general meeting that it is developing the Gwalia mine to gain access to the richer, deeper parts of the orebody. St Barbara says it remains on track to deliver its guidance of 205,000 to 240,000 ounces of gold this financial year at forecast cost. By fiscal 2012 the company says it is forecasting to be producing 300,000 to 340,000 ounces of gold. St Barbara posted a loss of $76.3 million in 2009.
Checking ex-dividends: and while there are no companies going ex-dividend today, coming up next week we have Count Financial on Monday, SP AusNet on Tuesday, and TFS Corporation on Thursday.
Overseas now and Wall Street finished lower - The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 94 points. The S&P500 Index is down 15 points and the NASDAQ fell 36 points.
European markets were also lower. London’s FTSE is down 74 points, Paris fell 68 points and Frankfurt lost 85.
Asian markets were mixed: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is down 197 points. Tokyo’s Nikkei slipped 127 and the Shanghai Composite added 17 points.
Looking at metals: Gold is $1 higher at US$1,142.20 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver gained 5 cents to US$18.46 and for the March contract, copper is down 3 cents at US$3.11.
And the price of oil is down $2.12 to US$77.46 a barrel for December light crude in New York.
