The Australian Stock market is lower at midday, following losses on Wall St overnight, declines in the health care sector dragging on stocks.
The S&P/ASX200 index is down 4 points at 4,671 and on the futures market, the SPI200 is down 12.
To company news: Stockland (ASX:SGP) has again boosted its stake in takeover target retirement village provider Aevum Ltd (ASX:AVE). The diversified property group has announced it now holds a 25.23 per cent interest in Aevum, increasing from 22.45 per cent last week. The Aevum board has recommended short to medium term investors accept Stockland’s offer of $1.80 cash per share, while longer term investors consider rejecting the offer. Shares in Stockland are 0.52% up at $3.90.
Virgin Blue Holdings Ltd (ASX:VBA) boss Richard Branson has apologised for the airline’s check in and flight schedule chaos over the weekend. Speaking to Network Seven, Mr Branson said it had been a terrible 24 hours with the computer system going down. According to the Australian Financial Review, passengers were stranded following a computer crash that forced Virgin Blue staff across the country to manually process checks ins, leading to flight cancellations and delays. Shares in Virgin Blue Holdings are 4.65% up at $0.45.
Turning now to market indices: The best performing sector is Telco Services, with the index up 3 points to 921. Shares in BigAir Group are up 2.94% to $0.175. Shares in Amcom Telecommunications and Telstra are also higher. The worst performing sector at midday is Health Care, with the index down 46 points to 8,316. Shares in Ramsay Health Care have fallen 2.28% to $15.01. Shares in CSL and Resmed are also lower at midday.
To New Zealand now, the NZSX50 is down 4 points. Taking a look at the top 4 stocks by turnover: Telecom of New Zealand is at the top of the list with stock steady at $2.04 followed by; Fletcher Building, Westpac and Kiwi Income Property Trust.
To gold and the dollar: Gold is trading at $1293 US an ounce and the Aussie dollar is trading at 96.04 US cents.
