The Aussie market has closed the session flat today following mixed leads from overseas markets with gains in miners like Rio Tinto and energy stocks such as Woodside Petroleum offsetting falls in major banks like NAB.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index finished 2 points higher at 4,926 while on the futures market, the SPI200’s down 16.
To company news around this afternoon: Mineral explorer Kagara Ltd (ASX:KZL) says the first ore from its Lounge Lizard high grade nickel sulphide deposit in Western Australia has been mined. The ore was processed by Western Areas NL (ASX:WSA) as part of the joint venture development of its Flying Fox deposit and the connecting Lounge Lizard orebody. Kagara says the ore produced so far is outside the indicated and inferred resource estimate of 1.15 million tonnes grading 4.6 per cent nickel previously announced by the company. Kagara shares closed 1.83 per cent higher at $1.11.
And according to a report in The Australian, documents filed at Japan’s Ministry of Finance show that Westpac Banking Corporation (ASX:WBC) plans to offer five year Samurai bonds this month. Samurai bonds are yen-denominated bonds issued by foreign borrowers in Japan. The paper says the bonds are to be priced in mid-January. Shares in Westpac closed 0.47 per cent lower at $25.39.
Also making news: Gold miner Ramelius Resources Ltd (ASX:RMS) has reported record gold sales of $19.9 million for December 2009 which it says is more than total gold sales by the company in any previous full financial year. Ramelius currently has a takeover offer on the table for Dioro Exploration NL.
Diagnostics company Tyrian Diagnostics Ltd (ASX:TDX) says James Pinto has resigned as the company’s Chief Financial Officer and Michael Vamos has been appointed to the role.
Top airline Qantas Airways Ltd (ASX:QAN) low cost offshoot Jetstar has formed a new alliance with AirAsia.
And Global miner BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP) has approved its share of the capital expenditure required to expand mining and processing capacity at the Antamina copper and zinc mine in northern Peru.
In the best and worst performers: The best performing sector today was the Materials index, which was up 143 points to 13,092. The worst performing by percentage points was the Telco Services index; which lost 13 points to 1,168.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ ASX200 was Fortescue Metals Group shares gained 13.04% to $5.20. Shares in Lynas Corp and Atlas Iron also improved.
The worst performing stock was Prime Infrastructure Group shares lost 6.99% to $3.86. Extract Resources and Harvey Norman shares also closed lower today.
In commodities, gold is trading at $1,123.40 U.S an ounce and light crude is down 4 cents at $81.73 U.S a barrel.
