Aussie stocks may be in for a flat start, with no lead from the US markets overnight. While Wall St is closed on Monday for the Labor Day holiday, US President Obama has announced plans to pour US$50 billion into transport infrastructure, in an effort to boost economic activity. European stocks were higher, London’s FTSE is up 11, Paris is up 13 and Frankfurt up 20.
Asian markets were higher: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng up 384 points on Monday, Tokyo’s Nikkei up 187 points and China’s Shanghai Composite up 41 points.
The Australian share market finished higher on Monday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 34 points higher to 4,576 and on the futures market the SPI200 is down 1 point. Turning to currencies and the Aussie Dollar at 7:35AM was buying 91.7 US cents, 59.58 Pence Sterling, 77.21 Yen and 71.25 Euro cents.
In local economic news: The Australian Industry Group/Housing Industry Association performance of construction index (PCI) for August and the HIA state and national outlook report for the June quarter. The Reserve Bank meets today, with the monetary policy decision expected at 2.30pm.
In business news: Shares in Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO) closed 1.64% up at $75 on Monday. Rio Tinto says that its share buy-back program is progressing as planned. In August the miner decided in principle to buy back all of the Rio shares held by its wholly owned subsidiary, Tinto Holdings, and expected the process would occur in two tranches. The first tranche was completed in August at a price of $69.27 per share, and Rio says the remaining ordinary shares are likely to be bought back later this month. Rio advises these internal capital management transactions do not affect the number of shares held by public shareholders. Rio Tinto reported a profit of $5.4 billion for the 2009 calendar year.
Shares in Stockland (ASX:SGP) closed 1.72% up at $4.15 on Monday. Stockland has responded to its takeover target’s claims that Stockland’s offer of $1.50 per share for Aevum Ltd (ASX:AVE) is inadequate, opportunistic and unsolicited. Stockland says it has identified a number of serious deficiencies in Aevum’s Target’s Statement and will be examining the document in detail before making a full response. Adding, what is already clear is that the Target’s Statement and independent expert report are deficient because they do not reflect the underlying performance of Aevum's business and includes a flawed valuation. Stockland reported a net profit of $478 million in 2010, rebounding from a loss of $1.8 billion the year before. To ex-dividends, there are five companies going ex-dividend today, all with fully franked dividends: Century Australia Investments with a 5 cent dividend, Hills Industries with a 5.5 cent dividend, Lindsay Australia with a .6 cent dividend, Provet Holdings with a 6 cent dividend, John Shearer with a 6 cent dividend.
