The local share market is higher at midday, led by strong offshore trading and gains in the miners amid talk that coal giant Xstrata could enter the bidding war for Macarthur Coal.
The S&P/ASX200 index is 34 points higher at 4,982, after the market rose to its highest level in 18 months shortly after opening this morning, and on the futures market, the SPI200’s up 28.
In economic news: The Australian Bureau of Statistics has revealed housing finance fell by a seasonally adjusted 1.8% in February.
In company news: Two of the largest shareholders in Seven Network Ltd (ASX:SEV) have indicated they will vote in favour of the planned merger of the television network and heavy equipment firm WesTrac. Ausbil Dexia and Perennial Value, who together represent 28.1% of shares in the company, have agreed to support the merger at Seven’s shareholders meeting on April 20. Chairman Kerry Stokes has agreed to protect shareholders by cancelling part of the share payment to his holding company, ACE, if WesTrac fails to meets its earnings forecast for the 2011 financial year. Seven Network shares gained 3.77% to $7.70.
CBH Resources Ltd (ASX:CBH) has received a fresh takeover offer from Nyrstar of Belgium and approved its request to undertake due diligence. Nyrstar is now offering 19.5 cents per CBH share and $1000 per convertible note. CBH had previously recommended a joint venture deal and bid for part of the company from its largest shareholder, Toho Zinc, in favour of Nyrstar’s initial offer. Shares in CBH Resources rose 2.78% to $0.185.
Turning now to market indices: The best performing sector at midday is the Materials index, up 172 points at 13,320. Shares in Macarthur Coal added 7.46% to $16.71 despite the miner denying market speculation that it has received a takeover offer from Xstrata. Shares in Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton are also higher at noon.
The worst performing sector is the Telco Services index, down 3 points to 1,052. Shares in SingTel declined 0.81% to $2.44, while shares in Telstra and Telecom of New Zealand are also lower.
Looking to New Zealand and the NZSX50 is up 7 points. Taking a look at the top 4 stocks by turnover: Heading the list is Telecom of New Zealand stock down 0.45% at $2.20 followed by; Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, Kathmandu Holdings and TrustPower.
To gold and the dollar: Gold is trading at US$1,165.30 an ounce and the Aussie dollar is trading at 93.42 US cents.
