The Australian market is down half a percent at noon, with weakness across the board.
The S&P/ASX200 index is down 24 points at 4,500 and on the futures market, the SPI200 is down 22.
In economic news: RP Data-Rismark index of house prices posted the first drop in house prices in 18 months, with median national home prices falling by 0.7% seasonally adjusted in June, the largest fall for a month since April 2008.
The RBA financial aggregates data for June showed housing credit increased by 0.4% for the month, following an increase of 0.6% over May.
To company news: AWE Ltd (ASX:AWE) has reported 47% growth for the three months to June 30, to 1.65 million barrels of oil equivalent, as a result of restarting its BassGas project. Annual sales revenue from oil and gas operations however, was 40% down at $354 million compared to a year ago. Shares in AWE are 2.45% down at $1.595.
GrainCorp Ltd (ASX:GNC) and AWB Ltd (ASX:AWB) plan to merge to create one of Australia’s leading diversified agribusiness groups with a combined market cap of $2 billion and revenues of $7 billion. AWB shareholders will receive one GrainCorp share for every 5.75 AWB shares they own, subject to shareholder approval. The merger benefits are expected to be in excess of $40 million. Directors of GrainCorp and AWB unanimously support the proposal. Shares GrainCorp are 4.49% down at $5.75.
Turning now to market indices: Most indices are in the red at midday. The best performing index is the Telco Services sector, up 2 points to 1,097. Shares in iinet are 5.66% higher at $2.88. Shares in Singapore Telecommunications and Telstra are also higher at noon. The worst performing index is the Financials sector, down 39 points to 4,397. Shares in Lend Lease dropped 2.42% to $7.26. Shares in Bank of Queensland and ING Industrial Fund are also lower at noon.
To New Zealand now and the NZSX50 is up 11 points. Taking a look at the top 4 stocks by turnover: Fletcher Building heads the list with stock steady at $7.62 followed by; Fisher and Paykel Healthcare, Telecom of New Zealand and Sky City Entertainment.
To gold and the dollar: Gold is trading at US$1,167.90 an ounce and the Aussie dollar is trading at 89.94 US cents.