The Australian share market is likely to open steady, the futures suggesting a flat start. Wall St finished last week with a lacklustre session, the major indexes closing little changed after a light volume day. Closer to home, investors will have all eyes on the QR National float of Queensland’s freight railways which is due to list today at noon.
On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 22 points higher at 11,204. The S&P 500 Index lifted 3 points to close at 1,200 and the NASDAQ closed 4 points firmer at 2,518.
European stocks were mixed: London’s FTSE down 36 points, Paris is down 8 and Frankfurt up 11.
To Asian markets, stocks were also mixed: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 32 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei was up 9 points and China’s Shanghai Composite up 23.
The Australian share market finished lower on Friday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 11 points weaker to 4,629 and on the futures market the SPI200 is up 6 points. Turning to currencies and the Aussie Dollar at 7:30AM was buying 98.77 US cents, 61.79 Pence Sterling, 82.45 Yen and 72.03 Euro cents.
Company news: Shares in ANZ Banking Group (ASX:ANZ) closed 0.4 per cent lower at $22.49 on Friday. The Treasurer, Wayne Swan has put the heat on Australia’s big banks, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX:CBA), National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX:NAB), Westpac Banking Corporation (ASX:WBC) and ANZ, vowing he is determined to see a new pillar in the system comprising of credit unions, building societies and wealth management companies. On Friday AMP’s $14 billion bid for rival fund manager AXA Asia Pacific Holdings Ltd (ASX:AXA) moved a step closer with all of AXA’s board unanimously backing the deal. When the Nine Network asked Mr Swan if he would approve AMP’s bid, he refused to speculate, but did affirm his commitment to welcoming additional investment in the banking system to provide more competition to take on the big four banks. ANZ earned a net profit of $4.5 billion in the year to 30 September.
The country’s biggest float since Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX:TLS) will list this afternoon, when rail operator QR National (ASX:QRN) debut’s on the Australian Securities Exchange. The final float price of $2.55 per share comes in at the lower end of the Queensland government’s target range of between $2.50 to $3.00 per share, with retail investors paying $2.45 per share. The initial public offering values the company at $6.7 billion, from which the Queensland government will earn around $4.6 billion for its sale of 60 per cent of QR National.
To ex-dividends: And there are six companies going ex-dividend today. They are Count Financial with 2 cent fully franked dividend, Novarise with a 1 cent unfranked dividend, Redflex Holdings with a 5 cent fully franked dividend, Supply Network with 4 cent fully franked dividend, Solco with a 0.37 unfranked dividend and SP AusNet with a 4 cent 39.78 per cent franked dividend.
To commodities: The price of gold is down US$0.70 to $US1352 an ounce for the December contract on Comex, silver is up $US0.345 to $28.18 and copper is up under one cent to $3.83 a pound. The price of oil is down $0.44 to $US81.98 a barrel for December light crude in New York.
