The Australian share market looks poised for a slightly higher start to the day, Wall St closing with modest gains as US investors were buoyed by across the board tax cuts.
On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, closed 13 points higher to 11,372. S&P500 lifted 5 points to 1,228, and the NASDAQ gained 11 points to 2,609.
European stocks were mixed: London’s FTSE is down 14 points, Paris is up 21 point and Frankfurt is down 26.
To Asian markets, stocks were also mixed: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 336, Tokyo’s Nikkei was up 91 points and China’s Shanghai Composite is down 27 points.
The Australian share market finished weaker on Wednesday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 27 points to close at 4,700 and on the futures market the SPI is up 19 points. Turning to currencies and the Aussie Dollar at 8:30AM was buying 97.93 US cents, 61.96 Pence Sterling, 82.31 Yen and 73.86 Euro cents.
In economic news: Due out today, the Australian Bureau of Statistics labour force data for November.
Company news: Shares in BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP) fell 0.49 per cent to close at $44.86 on Wednesday. CEO Marius Kloppers will receive $11.4 million worth of the global miner’s shares through its long term incentive plan and group incentive scheme. BHP says it has given Mr Kloppers 200,000 performance shares as part of the long term incentive plan and almost 55,000 deferred shares as part of the company’s incentive scheme. The new offering takes Mr Kloppers shareholding to a value of around $62 million, based on the BHP’s last traded price. BHP Billiton generated a net profit of $15.26 billion in the 2010 financial year.
Yesterday shares in NIB Holdings Ltd (ASX:NHF) lost 0.8 per cent to close at $1.25. Private health insurer NIB has dumped its $180 million bid for GMHBA after failing to win support from the rival health fund’s board. The withdrawal represents NIB’s third failed attempt at a takeover, however the company says it will still continue to explore merger and acquisition opportunities. NIB Holdings booked a net profit of $61.5 million in 2010 financial year.
Ex-dividends: Metcash is the only company going ec-dividend today with an 11 cent fully franked dividend. Coming up next week we have The MAC Services, NetComm and Singapore Telecommunications.
To commodities: Gold is down $25.80 to $US1,383 an ounce for the February contract on Comex, silver is up $1.525 to $28.25 and copper is up $0.051 to $4.10 a pound. Oil is down $0.41 at $88.28 for January light crude in New York.
