The Australian share market may open the week steady, following a flat lead from Wall Street, despite US stocks recording the best monthly gain in a year, boosted by positive second-quarter results.
On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 1 point lower at 10,466. The S&P 500 Index is flat at 1,102 and the NASDAQ is up 3 points at 2,255.
European stocks were mixed; London’s FTSE down 56 point, Paris is down 9 and Frankfurt up 13.
Asian markets were lower: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 64 points on Friday, Tokyo’s Nikkei down 159 points and China’s Shanghai Composite down 11 points.
The Australian share market finished weaker on Friday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 31 points lower at 4,494 and on the futures market the SPI200 is up 7 points. Turning to currencies and the Aussie Dollar at 7:40AM was buying 90.59 US cents, 57.61 Pence Sterling, 78.27 Yen and 69.35 Euro cents.
In local economic news: The Housing Industry Association is expected to release new home sales data for June, and also, the RBA’s index of commodity prices for July is expected today.
In business news: Shares in Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN) were down 2.38% to $8.19 last Friday. Mineral Resources has extended its takeover offer for Mesa Minerals Ltd (ASX:MAS) till 27 August. The miner says it does not again intend to extend or increase the offer, of one Mineral Resources share for every 70.6 Mesa shares. Executive Chairman Peter Wade has encouraged remaining Mesa shareholders to accept the offer as soon as possible. Mineral Resources reported a profit of $44.31 million for the year ending 30 June 2009.
Shares in Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX:TLS) down 0.31% to $3.22 at the end of last week. Telstra has announced that it expects to incur a non-cash impairment charge of $170 million to the carrying value of Hong Kong-based CSL New World. The telco says because of the impairment charge, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, as well as earnings before interest and tax, guidance provided at the beginning of February 2010, will decline slightly for the fiscal year. Telstra posted a profit of $4.1 billion for the year to June 30, 2009.
To ex-dividends: Ramelius Resources is going today with a 5 cent unfranked dividend, and coming up tomorrow is Djerriwarrh Investments, Ozgrowth and Westoz Investment Company.
The price of oil is up $0.59 to US$78.95 a barrel for September light crude in New York.
