The local share market has given up some of its earlier gains after opening higher this morning on positive offshore leads. A slight recovery on Wall Street has encouraged investors to shop for bargains among mining and financial stocks.
The S&P/ASX200 index is 9 points higher at 4,314 and on the futures market, the SPI200’s up 21.
In company news: Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO) says it is reviewing all investments in Australia and described the country as its top sovereign risk as its continues to digest the impact of the federal government’s planned mining tax. CEO Tom Albanese has told a press conference that the tax has set up the prospect of a long period of uncertainty which is corrosive to new investment. To date, no major Australian mining projects have been ditched as a result of the planned 40% tax on mining profits, but Rio is among a growing number of miners that have threatened to pull billions of dollars of investment if the tax is implemented. Shares in Rio Tinto are up 1.5% at $62.73.
Eastern Star Gas Ltd (ASX:ESG) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with three companies for a feasibility study into the development of a liquefied natural gas export project at Newcastle in New South Wales. The agreement to conduct the study has been reached with Hitachi Ltd, Industrial & Social Infrastructure Systems Company and Toyo Engineering Corporation. Eastern Star Gas chairman John Anderson says capital expenditure on gas production activities would exceed $1 billion over the life of the project. He says a further $1 billion would be spent upfront for construction of a 1 million tonne per annum LNG plant. If the study is successful, engineering and design work on the project could start before the end of the year. Shares in Eastern Star Gas have gained 4.96% to $0.74.
Turning now to market indices: The best performing sector at noon is the Financials excluding the Real Estate Investment Trust index, up 35 points at 5,000. Shares in ANZ are 1.48% higher at $21.31. Shares in Suncorp-Metway and Commonwealth Bank are also higher at midday.
The worst performing sector is the Industrials index, down 45 points to 3,385. Shares in Brambles lost 3.69% to $6.52, while shares in Downer EDI and Emeco Holdings are also lower.
Looking to New Zealand and the NZSX50 is up 14 points. Taking a look at the top 4 stocks by turnover: ANZ Bank tops the list with stock up 0.58% at $26.10, followed by; Telecom of New Zealand, Fletcher Building and Sky City Entertainment.
To gold and the dollar: Gold is trading at US$1,184 an ounce and the Aussie dollar is trading at 82.12 US cents.
