Following a lacklustre lead from Wall St overnight, the local share market is slightly higher at midday with gains in mining giant BHP defying falls in metals prices and helping to counter declines in some bank stocks and gold miners.
The S&P/ASX200 index is 11 points higher at 4,696 and on the futures market the SPI 200’s up 3 points.
In economic news: The ABS says construction work in the third quarter rose 2.2% from the previous quarter.
The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations says its index of skilled job vacancies increased 4.3% in November.
In company news: Gaming business Aristocrat Leisure Ltd (ASX:ALL) says it trying to reduce the amount of damages it has to pay bondholders in a US convertible bond case. The company says bondholders are proposing that final judgments be entered by the Court for both general and consequential damages aggregating around US$233 million. The purpose of the trial was to determine the recoverability of consequential damages claimed by certain bondholders with the jury finding that Aristocrat did not prove that bondholders failed to take reasonable steps to mitigate their consequential damages. Aristocrat Leisure shares fell 2.4 per cent to $4.06.
Grain industry service provider GrainCorp Ltd (ASX:GNC) has recorded a profit of $63.2 million for the year to September 30 compared to a loss of $19.94 million the year before. The result came in just above the company’s guidance of profit between $61 million and $63 million. Revenue rose 12.8% to $1.73 billion with grain receivals totalling 10.7 million tonnes for fiscal 2009. However Managing Director Mark Irwin says due to different seasonal conditions grain receivals are likely to be lower in fiscal 2010. GrainCorp shares lost 1.26 per cent to $6.28.
Turning now to market indices: The best performing sector at midday is the Health Care index is up 66 points to 8,431. Shares in Acrux advanced 2.93% to $2.46. Shares in Cochlear and Primary Health Care are also higher.
The worst performing sector at midday is the Industrials index, down 14 points to 3,801. Shares in Ausenco fell 3.3% to $4.39. Shares in Seek and Spotless Group are also lower at noon.
Looking to New Zealand and the NZSX50 is 7 points higher. Looking at the top 5 stocks by turnover on the NZSX50: Telecom of New Zealand is top of the list stock up 0.41% at $2.47. Following the Telco is ANZ, Fletcher Building, Telstra and Sky City.
To gold and the dollar: Gold is trading at US$1,168.55 an ounce and the Aussie dollar is trading at 92.33 US cents.
