The Australian share market looks set for a steady start this morning, following a mostly flat lead from Wall Street and European markets.
US stocks finished marginally higher on Friday, after mixed retail and consumer confidence data gave investors little insight into the economic recovery.
The US Commerce Department reported Friday that retail sales rose a surprising 0.3% last month. They had been expected to fall in February.
In other economic news out of the US, investors were disappointed by weaker than expected consumer confidence data. The University of Michigan consumer sentiment index fell to 72.5 in early March from 73.6 in February.
And business inventories were unchanged in February, after falling 0.2% in the previous month. They had been tipped to rise 0.1%.
President Barack Obama revealed he wants to nominate San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank president Janet Yellen to become the next Federal Reserve vice chair.
To the figures now and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher on Friday, gaining 13 points to 10,625. The S&P500 Index was steady at 1,150 and the NASDAQ fell just under a point to 2,368.
European stocks closed mixed on Friday. London’s FTSE rose 8 points, Paris slipped 2 points and Frankfurt gained 16.
Asian stocks were mixed with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 18 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei rose 86 and China’s Shanghai Composite fell 38 points.
The Australian share market closed marginally higher on Friday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index finished 4 points higher to 4,818 and on the futures market the SPI200 is up just 1 point. On to currencies: the Aussie Dollar at 9:00AM was buying 91.83 US cents, 60.52 Pence Sterling, 83.31 Yen and 66.65 Euro cents.
In local economic news: The Australian Bureau of Statistics is set to release lending finance data for January.
To company news around this morning: Shares in Oil Search Ltd (ASX:OSH) slipped 0.88% to $5.66 on Friday. The explorer is expected to announce today that it has secured the $15 billion needed to ramp up construction at its gas project in Papua New Guinea. The Australian Financial Review reports that Managing Director Peter Botten is currently in the US to secure the debt package, which has been described as the world’s largest single project financing. The financing will come from a syndicate of 17 banks, as well as export credit agencies from the US, Japan, China, Italy and Australia. Oil Search has a 29% stake in the Papua New Guinea LNG project, which it shares with Santos and ExxonMobil among other partners. The debt package will allow the partners to recoup some of the costs already sunk into the development and to accelerate work. Oil Search posted a profit of just over $149 million for 2009.
Metcash Ltd (ASX:MTS) shares are steady at $4.07. The grocery wholesaler has secured Mitre 10 shareholder approval for a $55 million cash injection in return for a 50% stake in the hardware retailer. CEO Andrew Reitzer says the company will start a detailed review of Mitre 10 at the end of the month, once the Supreme Court has ratified a series of schemes of arrangements that were approved by shareholders on Friday. Mr Reitzer says the review could uncover significant opportunities to boost sales, improve gross profit margins and reduce costs. Under the arrangement, Metcash will emerge with a 50.1% interest in Mitre 10 in return for an injection of about $55 million, most of which will be used to repay borrowings, leaving the company almost debt-free. Mitre 10 shareholders will not receive cash for their shares until 2012 or 2013 when Metcash exercises an option to buy the remainder of the company. Metcash’s net profit for the 12 months to April 30, 2009, was $202.5 million.
There are a number of companies going ex-dividend today including, Count Financial with a 2 cent fully franked dividend and GWA International with a fully franked 9.5 cent dividend. Also going today are Leighton, McMahon Holdings, Sky City and Wotif.com Holdings.
To commodities: Gold is down $6.50 at US$1,101.50 an ounce for the April contract on Comex. For the May contract silver dropped 11 cents to US$17.02 and copper is steady at US$3.37.
And finally the price of oil fell 87 cents to US$81.24 a barrel for April light crude in New York.
