The Australian share market is expected to open weaker today following a sell-off on major international markets in the US and Europe over the weekend. Nervous investors sold off European equities on Friday, fearing that Ireland’s debt woes will see Portugal and Spain follow its lead and ask for financial help.
On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, was down 95 points to 11,092. S&P500 was down 9 points to 1,189 and NASDAQ was down 9 points to 2,535.
European stocks were lower: London’s FTSE was down 30 points, Paris was down 32 points and Frankfurt was down 31.
To Asian markets, stocks were lower: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 177, Tokyo’s Nikkei was down 40 points and China’s Shanghai Composite was down 27 points.
The Australian share market finished mixed on Friday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 5 points higher to 4,598 and on the futures market the SPI200 was down 21 points. Turning to currencies and the Aussie Dollar at 7:30AM was buying 96.4 US cents, 61.79 Pence Sterling, 80.9 Yen and 72.44 Euro cents.
Economic news: The Housing Industry Association is due to release its home-sales figures and the Australian Bureau of Statistics will publish its September quarter business indicators.
Company news: On Friday shares in Qantas Airways Ltd (ASX:QAN) closed steady at $2.67. Qantas has resumed flights of its Airbus A380s after a mid-flight engine failure earlier this month grounded all of the planes. Yesterday, in a bid to prove the safety of the superjumbos, chief executive Alan Joyce joined the first resumed flight QF31 from Sydney to Singapore with 453 passengers on board.For the year ended 30 June 2010, Qantas reported a net profit of $116 million.
On Friday shares in Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO) closed 1.19 per cent higher at $84.04. Rio Tinto’s 2011 copper production will drop to its lowest level in over a decade. Copper grades have continued to decline at the company’s three biggest mines, preventing the miner from making the most of record copper prices. Rio copper chief executive Andrew Harding says mined copper production will drop by 15 per cent next year to around 562,000 tonnes. For the half year ended 30 June 2010, Rio booked a net profit of $7.4 billion.
Ex-dividends: There are five companies going ex-dividend today. BT Investment Management with a 10 cent fully franked dividend, Clover Corporation with a 1.25 cent fully franked dividend, Fisher and Paykel Health with a zero cent unfranked dividend, Infratil with a zero cent unfranked dividend and Technology One with 4.37 fully franked dividend. And coming up tomorrow is HGL Ltd and Tower Australia.
Commodities: Gold is down $10.60 to $US1,362 an ounce for the December contract on Comex, silver is down 82.9 cents to $26.70 and copper is down $0.0045 to $3.75 a pound.
Oil is down $0.10 at $83.76 for December light crude in New York.
