The local share market is steady at midday following a flat lead from Wall St overnight,investors cautious over the United States plans to overhaul healthcare and banking regulations, overshadowing gains in the miners on strong commodity prices.
The S&P/ASX200 index is 2 points lower at 4,734 and on the futures market the SPI200’s down 15 points.
In economic news: ABS figures released today show that Australia’s trade deficit stood at $1.176 billion in January an improvement on the $2.174 billion deficit in December.
In company news: Reuters reports that iron ore giants BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP), Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO) and Brazil’s Vale are asking for a 50% increase in term prices. According to Reuters China Daily says Baosteel, one of China’s largest steel mills, which is leading this year’s ore talks, will wait and see how Japanese and South Korean steel mills react to the proposal before making a decision. Shares in BHP Billiton gained 0.86% to $42.03.
Regional lender Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Ltd (ASX:BEN) has followed the major banks and decided to pass on the full RBA rate rise to its customers. From March 9 the banks residential variable home loan rate will rise to 6.95% a year. The bank says third party mortgages will also rise by 25 basis points and there will also be an increase in interest paid on a range of deposits. Shares in Bendigo and Adelaide Bank fell 0.31% to $9.75.
Turning now to market indices: The best performing sector at midday is the Materials index, up 67 points at 12,306. Shares in Aquarius Platinum rose 4.28% to $6.58. Shares in Mincor Resources and Mirabela Nickel are also higher.
The worst performing sector at midday is the Utilities index, down 55 points to 4,293. Shares in Challenger Infrastructure Fund fell 2.96% to $1.64. While shares in AGL Energy and Spark Infrastructure Group are also lower at noon.
Looking to New Zealand and the NZSX50 is flat. Taking a look at the top 4 stocks by turnover: Topping the list is Telecom of New Zealand with stock up 0.9% at $2.23 followed by; AMP, Telstra and Fletcher Building.
To gold and the dollar: Gold is trading at US$1,138.70 an ounce and the Aussie dollar is trading at 90.44 US cents.
