The Australian share market has closed a thinly traded session lower today on profit taking ahead of the New Years day public holiday.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index finished 12 points lower at 4,833 while on the futures market, the SPI200’s down 29.
To company news around this afternoon: ASX listed Canadian agribusiness Viterra Inc (ASX:VTA), who recently acquired ABB Grain for $1.6 billion, says ABB was in breach of its loan covenants at October 31, 2009. The company says it has been in discussions with ABB’s syndicate of lenders and has received a waiver in respect of the breach. Chief Financial Officer Rex McLennan says Viterra has been working hard to implement changes in Australian operations to strengthen business processes and accountability for bottom line results. Mr McLennan says the company is confident that its Australian operations will achieve significant earnings recovery in 2010. Viterra shares closed 1.44 per cent higher at $10.57.
Pryme Oil and Gas Ltd (ASX:PYM) says its Hawg Pen prospect in the US has the potential for production of several hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil from these sands. The company has begun drilling the inaugural exploration test in the Catahoula Lake Project in the Hawg Pen Prospect. Pryme says the objective in drilling the well is to test several Middle Wilcox sands which have been identified from offset production. Shares in Pryme Oil & Gas closed 18.06 per cent stronger at $0.085.
Also making news: Envirogold Ltd (ASX:EVG) says it is in advanced negotiations to place a strategic shareholding with a major Latin American group.
Diversified resources company Cazaly Resources Ltd (ASX:CAZ) has announced a placement of 4 million ordinary fully paid shares at 28 cents a share to raise $2.24 million to primarily advance the company’s Parker Range iron ore project.
According to Reuters Antamina, a joint venture between BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP), Xstrata, Teck Cominco and Mitsubishi Corp, expects a $1.2 billion expansion to gain shareholder approval in the coming days. A report in The Australian also says the Peru has given the green light for an agreement between Antamina and the regional government of Ancash to use profits from mining operation to fund the expansion.
And Packaging business Amcor Ltd (ASX:AMC) says the US Department of Justice has terminated the Hart-Scott-Rodino premerger waiting period allowing the company to acquire substantially all of the operations of Alcan Packaging and limits its ongoing review to Alcan’s Medical Flexibles operations in the U.S.
In the best and worst performers: All sectors closed in the red today, however the sector with the smallest loss at close was the Financials Excluding Real Estate Investment Trust index, which was down 5 points at 5,574. The worst performing sector at close was the Utilities index; which lost 70 points to 4,309.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ ASX200 was Macmahon Holdings shares gained 6.84% to $0.625. Shares in Gindalbie Metals and Linc Energy also rose today.
The worst performing stock was Energy World Corp shares lost 5.95% to $0.395. Spotless Group and Kingsgate Consolidated shares also closed lower today.
In commodities, gold is trading at $1,095.05 U.S an ounce and light crude is up 7 cents at $78.94 U.S a barrel.
