Aussie stocks have followed global markets down, as fatal riots in Greece and a downgrade warning for Portugal fuel fears for an escalation in the eurozone debt crisis.
Financial stocks are leading the declines with National Australia Bank announcing a 21% drop in first half profit and ANZ trading ex-dividend today. The S&P/ASX200 index is 81 points lower at 4,593 and on the futures market, the SPI200’s down 94. In economic news: Consumers spent less than expected in March as interest rate rises forced them to tighten their purse strings. Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows retail sales rose by 0.3% in March following a 1.4% drop in February. They had been expected to rise by 0.7%.
In company news: Shares in Centennial Coal Ltd (ASX:CEY) have surged on news that 10% of the company’s stock has been bought by JP Morgan on behalf of Chinese coal giant Shenhua Energy. A report in the Australian Financial Review reveals that Shenhua may now own 14.9% of the coal power supplier. But the company has released a statement saying it is not aware of the identity of the buyer or buyers of the stock. Centennial Coal shares are up 21.3% at $4.84.
And engineering firm Downer EDI Ltd (ASX:DOW) has been contracted to provide telecommunications network design services to the company in charge of rolling out the government’s national broadband network. The contract is to design an aerial broadband network in Townsville, Queensland, for NBN Co’s First Release Site pilot programme. CEO of Downer Telecommunications Peter Reidy says the contract win augers well for future opportunities in the growing telecommunications sector. Meanwhile, the government has announced that it will next week release a $25 million study into its promised $43 billion national broadband network. Shares in Downer EDI are steady at $6.72.
Turning now to market indices: The best performing sector at midday is the Telco Services index, up 13 points at 1,080. Shares in Telstra rose 1.28% to $3.17. Shares in Telecom of New Zealand and iiNet are also higher at noon.
The worst performing sector is the Financials excluding the Real Estate Investment Trust index, down 184 points to 5,415. Shares in ANZ Bank lost 5.43% to $22.80, while shares in Westpac Bank and National Australia Bank are also lower.
Looking to New Zealand and the NZSX50 is down 24 points. Taking a look at the top 4 stocks by turnover: Top of the list is Telecom of New Zealand stock is down 0.47% at $2.14 followed by; Sky Network Television, Fletcher Building and Sky City Entertainment.
To gold and the dollar: Gold is trading at US$1,175.35 an ounce and the Aussie dollar is trading at 90.54 US cents.
