The Australian share market has slightly fallen at noon, following Wall St closing lower on tech giant Cisco’s profit warning and renewed fears over the global economy, fuelled by Irish debt concerns. Locally banks are dragging Aussie shares lower, National Australia Bank trading ex-dividend, while the miners are leading the gains.
The S&P/ASX200 index is steady at 4,728 and on the futures market, the SPI200 is up 5.
To company news: Sources have told Reuters that Toll Holdings Ltd (ASX:TOL) has raised $US275 million in long term debt in the US. According to Reuters the logistics firm will finalise the offer at the end of the year following the investors’ due diligence, with Toll advising it is making good progress on the transactions. The offer consists of three parts, a $US100 million five-year tranche, a $US100 million 7-year tranche and a $US75 million 10-year tranche. Shares in Toll Holdings are 0.16% higher at $6.12.
PMP Ltd (ASX:PMP) has upgraded its EBIT guidance for the current financial year and is forecasting double digit growth, buoyed by new contract wins. The printer and magazine distributor now expects earnings before interest and tax before significant items of between $31 million to $33 million in fiscal 2011. PMP says it expects a considerable uplift from last years result of $22.1 million. Shares in PMP are 0.68% down at $0.73.
Turning now to market indices: The best performing sector at noon is Materials, with the index up 95 points to 14,018. Shares in Cudeco are up 6.56% at $3.25. Shares in Gryphon Minerals and Rio Tinto are also higher. The worst performing sector at midday is Financials Excluding Real Estate Investment Trusts with the index down 21 points to 5,013. Bank of Queensland has gone ex-dividend today, and is down 3.58% at $10.78. NAB has also gone ex-dividend today is lower at midday, along with ANZ Bank.
To New Zealand now, the NZSX50 is down 12 points. Taking a look at the top 4 stocks by turnover: Telecom of New Zealand is at the top of the list with stock up 0.46% at $2.17 followed by; Fletcher Building, Fisher and Paykel Healthcare and Guinness Peat Group. To gold and the dollar: Gold is trading at $US1406 an ounce and the Aussie dollar is buying $US99.92 cents.
