The local market has followed leads from Wall Street and offshore markets to trade lower at midday, with almost all sectors lurking in negative territory.
Only gold stocks are trading in the black at noon, but the local resources sector has taken a heavy hit from falls in commodity prices, with mining stocks like BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto suffering losses.
The S&P/ASX200 index is 89 points lower at 4,522 and on the futures market, the SPI200’s down 78.
In company news: Leighton Holdings Ltd (ASX:LEI) has announced a $400 million profit for the nine-months to March 31– almost double that of a year ago. The company says revenue fell to $13.3 billion from $13.7 billion over the period, largely due to currency fluctuations. CEO Wal King says the group’s work-in-hand stands at $37.5 billion, with $2.5 billion in new work awarded in the March quarter alone. Since March, Mr King says an additional $1.8 billion of work has been won and the group is in a preferred position on over $6 billion of projects due to be awarded in the next few months. Looking ahead, Mr King says he expects Leighton to post a full year profit of over $600 million. Shares in Leighton Holdings are 5.08% lower at $32.88.
ANZ Banking Group Ltd (ASX:ANZ) has opened six new branches in Singapore after completing its acquisition of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s retail and commercial businesses in the country. The branches and 19 ATMs have been rebranded and staff shifted to the new locations. ANZ now deals with over 300,000 customers in Singapore, in retail, commercial and institutional banking and wealth management. Singapore is the fifth Asian country in which Royal Bank of Scotland has sold assets to ANZ, following on from the Philippines, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Taiwan. A remaining acquisition is expected to be completed in Indonesia next month. Shares in ANZ are down 1.97% at $22.36.
Turning now to indices: The majority of sectors are in the red at noon. One of the better performers is the Real Estate Investment Trust index, down 3 points at 867. Shares in CFS Retail Property Trust are up 0.8% at $1.885. Shares in Stockland are also higher, while Westfield shares are flat at noon.
The worst performing sector is the Materials index, down 323 points to 11,550. Shares in Atlas Iron are down 6.9% to $2.16, while shares in Mirabela Nickel and Extract Resources are also lower.
Looking to New Zealand and the NZSX50 is down 7 points. Taking a look at the top 4 stocks by turnover: At the top of the list is Telecom of New Zealand with stock steady at $2.10 followed by; NZ Farming Systems Uruguay, Fletcher Building and ANZ.
To gold and the dollar: Gold is trading at US$1,237.10 an ounce and the Aussie dollar is trading at 88.17 US cents.
