Out of puff: Aus shares close 0.28% lower

Market Reports

by Carolyn Herbert

The Australian share market finally ran out of puff for its final trading day before the four day Christmas break. Following a weak lead from Wall Street, the local bourse opened slightly lower and ended up closing the day down 0.28 per cent . Despite a shortened trading day, volumes were surprisingly modest, but most sectors finished the day in the red. The sector hit the hardest this session was the materials space, after softer iron ore and metal prices overnight. Energy fared the best after a small increase in the price of Brent Crude overnight.

At the closing bell the S&P/ASX 200 index closed 16 points down to finish at 5,628. The local bourse gained 95 points over the week.

The value of trades was $5 billion on volume of 495 million shares at the close of trade. The top three stocks by value were Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX:CBA), BHP Billiton Limited (ASX:BHP) and Rio Tinto Limited (ASX:RIO).

On the futures market the SPI is 26 points down.

US markets

Looking at Wall Street, US major indexes have rallied over the four trading days this week: The Dow Jones Industrial Average has added 0.4 per cent. The S&P 500 Index has gained 0.1 per cent. The NASDAQ has added 0.2 per cent. The 100 Index has added 0.4 per cent.

Company news

Charter Hall Long Wale REIT (ASX:CLW) has acquired a $66 million portfolio of 10 industrial properties on a sale and leaseback basis. The acquisition increases the property portfolio of the REIT to $1.32 billion.Shares in Charter Hall Long Wale REIT closed flat at $4.00.
Looking at some more headlines:

Tatts Group Limited (ASX:TTS) has announced it does not believe the Pacific Consortium bid to be superior to the proposed Tabcorp merger.

Santos Limited (ASX:STO) has announced it intends to raise $500 million from existing Santos shareholders by the end of January 2017.

Best and worst performers

The best performing sector was REITs adding 1.1 per cent to close at 1,398. The worst performing sector was Materials, losing 1.1 per cent to close at 9,536 points.

The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Altium (ASX:ALU), rising 2.84 per cent to close at $7.98. Shares in Virtus Health (ASX:VRT) and Goodman Group (ASX:GMG) also closed higher.

The worst performing stock was Fortescue Metals (ASX:FMG), dropping 4.47 per cent to close at $5.77. Shares in Estia Health (ASX:EHE) and Tatts Group (ASX:TTS) also closed lower.

IPOs

Sensera Limited (ASX:SE1) started trading today. The manufacturer of Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems floated at $0.20, opened at $0.385 and closed at $0.335.

Commodities and the dollar

Gold is trading at $US1,132 an ounce, over the week it lost $3.79.
Light crude is $0.16 higher at $US52.65 a barrel.
The Australian dollar is buying $US0.7209, it lost a cent over the week.



 

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