The Australian share market is higher at midday, fighting off weak leads from Wall Street and falls within the Telco’s.
The S&P/ASX200 index up 12 points at 4,412 and on the futures market, the SPI200 is up 20 points. To company news: Transfield Services Ltd (ASX:TSE) has been awarded $200 million worth of work from the Australian Rail Track Corporation. The asset manager and maintenance services provider will commence $160 million of rail upgrade work over the next two years, and an additional 18 month extension on its existing long term maintenance alliance contract, worth $40 million. The infrastructure work upgrade is due take place in South Australia and the eastern rail corridor between Melbourne and Sydney. Shares in Transfield Services are slightly lower at noon, down 0.31% at $3.19.
Shares in Telstra Corporation (ASX:TLS) have dropped to a record low and was earlier the most traded stock in volume, following yesterday’s announcement that the telco’s annual $3.88 billion profit was below the $4.07 billion reported the year before. The embattled telecommunications giant earlier today announced it plans to sell off its 51% stake in Chinese company SouFun Holdings for around US$413 million. Shares in Telstra are down 1.7% at $2.89.
Turning now to market indices: The best performing index at midday is the Materials sector, up 179 points at 12,069. Shares in Lynas Corporation are 7.23% higher at $0.89. Shares in Icitec Pivot and Alumina are also higher at noon. The worst performing index is the Telco’s sector, down 16 points to 990. Shares in iiNet dropped 5.99% to $2.67. Shares in Amcom Telecommunications and Telstra are also lower at midday.
To New Zealand now and the NZSX50 is up 3 points. Taking a look at the top 4 stocks by turnover: Fletcher Building heads the list with stock down 1.47% to $7.36 followed by; Telecom of New Zealand, Telstra and Fisher and Paykel Healthcare.
To gold and the dollar: Gold is trading at US $1214 an ounce and the Aussie dollar at midday is trading at 89.91 US cents.
