The Australian share market is lower at midday, by .8%, investors cautious following a weak lead on Wall St and signs of slowing US growth.
The S&P/ASX200 index is down 35 points at 4,424 and on the futures market, the SPI200 is down 26.
To company news: Virgin Blue Holdings Ltd (ASX:VBA) will no longer fly New Zealand domestic routes from 18 October, following years of significant losses. The announcement came as part of the airlines first phase of a network review, in which it says it will redeploy its New Zealand aircraft to trans-Tasman and international routes. The airline advises that through restructuring the Pacific Blue operations, Virgin Blue has been able to free up long-haul V Australia aircraft to capture growing demand for travel to the US. Virgin says recent changes to domestic flight patterns have provided almost 500,000 extra seats across the Virgin Blue domestic network. Shares in Virgin Blue are 1.67% down at $0.295.
Centennial Coal Company Ltd (ASX:CEY) has reported a $51 million net profit for the last financial year, down 28% from the $71 million recorded in 2009. The miner also posted a drop in sales revenue, down 10% to $800 million for the year, attributing lower US export coal prices and an appreciation of the Australian dollar for the decline. A final dividend of 4 cents per share, 40% franked, has been declared, payable on 8 October. Shares in Centennial Coal Company are 0.33% up at $6.06.
Turning now to market indices: The best performing index is the Consumer Staples sector, up 37 points to 7,660. Shares in AWB are 31.51% higher at $1.44. Shares Fosters Group and Woolworths also higher at noon. The worst performing index is the Financials Excluding Real Estate Investment Trusts sector, down 77 points to 4,876. Shares in Commonwealth Bank dropped 3.36% to $49.75. Shares in Insurance Australia Group and AXA Asia Pacific Holdings are also lower at midday.
To New Zealand now and the NZSX50 is down 7 points. Taking a look at the top 4 stocks by turnover: Fletcher Building heads the list with stock down 2.04% at $7.20 followed by; D N Zed Property Fund Trust, Telecom of New Zealand and Telstra.
To gold and the dollar: Gold is trading at $1218 US an ounce and the Aussie dollar is trading at 88.92 US cents.
