Aussie stocks are lower at midday, investors cautious as concern about the health of the global economy heightens after a report out of China showed the pace of manufacturing growth slowed in June, and after ratings agency Moody’s downgraded Spain’s credit rating.
The S&P/ASX200 index is 79 points weaker at 4,223 and on the futures market, the SPI200’s down 55.
In economic news: According to data released by the ABS, retail sales rose 0.2% in May, however building approvals fell 6.6% for the month compared to April.
In company news: Regional lender Bank of Queensland Ltd (ASX:BOQ) has completed the purchase CIT Group Australia and New Zealand, for $475 million. CEO David Liddy says that while the company has been able to fund the purchase from existing liquidity and capital, yesterday the company agreed to issue $150 million of lower tier 2 convertible notes as a private placement, further strengthening its capital positon. The company says it expects the acquisition to be earnings per share accretive immediately but says it will not have a material impact on the bank’s fiscal 2010 results. Shares in Bank of Queensland fell 2.1% to $10.25.
AGL Energy Ltd (ASX:AGK) has made a bid for oil and gas explorer Mosaic Oil NL (ASX:MOS) valuing the company at $123.2 million. AGL says it has made an indicative non-binding proposal to acquire all the issued shares in Mosaic by way of a scheme of arrangement for either 15 cents a share or 1.01 AGL shares for every 100 Mosaic shares held. Mosaic says AGL has entered into a number of pre-bid acceptance agreements in respect of 12.8% of Mosaic’s issued share capital. Shares in AGL Energy rose 0.27% to $14.74.
Turning now to market indices: Majority of sectors are in the red at midday, however the only sector in the black is the Real Estate Investment Trust index, up a point to 845. Shares in Dexus Property Group are 1.95% higher at $0.78. Shares in Stockland and GPT Group are also higher at noon.
The sector with the biggest loss at midday is the Energy index, down 345 points to 13,748. Shares in WorleyParsons dropped 5.72% to $20.94, while shares in Aquila Resources and Centennial Coal are also trading lower at noon.
Looking to New Zealand and the NZSX50 is 21 points lower.
Taking a look at the top 4 stocks by turnover: Top of the list is Telecom of New Zealand with stock down 1.06% at $1.87 followed by; Fletcher Building, Auckland Airport and Kiwi Income Property Trust.
To gold and the dollar: Gold is trading at US$1,240.75 an ounce and the Aussie dollar is trading at 83.44 US cents.
