The Australian share market is receiving mixed leads from offshore trading overnight, as both equities markets and commodities are turning in a mixed-bag performance. Yesterday, the Australian share market staged a strong performance and closed higher. It’s a generally quiet news day on the local markets today, with no events scheduled on either the economics or equities front.
On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, closed 12 points lower to 11,360. S&P500 lifted 4 points to 1,232, and the NASDAQ gained 6 points to 2,615. European stocks were mixed: London’s FTSE is up 13 points, Paris is up 26 points and Frankfurt is down 12. To Asian markets, stocks were also mixed: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 79, Tokyo’s Nikkei was up 54 points and China’s Shanghai Composite is down 38 points. The Australian share market finished weaker on Thursday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index lifted 41 points to close at 4,741 and on the futures market the SPI is down 7 points. Turning to currencies and the Aussie Dollar at 8:30AM was buying 98.48 US cents, 62.45 Pence Sterling, 82.4 Yen and 74.35 Euro cents.
To company news: Yesterday shares in Australian Securities Exchange (ASX:ASX) closed 0.08 per cent higher at $37.98. Singapore Exchange Ltd says the next step for its merger with Australian Securities Exchange (ASX:ASX) would be expansion within Asia. SGX chief executive Magnus Bocker says the combined exchange would be the ideal venue for emerging companies from neighbouring countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and various other ASEAN countries. ASX chief Robert Elstone added that both the exchanges are set to lodge their Foreign Investment Review Board application in the next week. Mr Elstone says shareholders and customers are strongly supporting the deal and he is confident it would receive regulatory backing. For the year ended 30 June 2010, ASX reported a net profit of $328 million.
Shares in Everest Financial Group Ltd (ASX:EFG) closed steady at $0.056. Former Babcock and Brown-backed hedge fund Everest Financial Group is being sued by two Sydney businessmen for what they say is a breach of guarantee and misleading and deceptive conduction. Brothers Bernard Stang and Maurie Stange are suing the firm in relation to two investment schemes in which they invested $5 million and say the company’s directors, Jeremy Reid and Steven Eckowitz induced them to invest in the schemes with performance guarantees of up to 6.75 per cent a year. The two are being represented by legal firm Slater and Gordon. For the year ended 30 June 2010, Everest Financial reported a net loss of $3.1 million.
Ex-dividends: There are no companies going ex-dividend today.
Commodities: Gold is up $9.60 to $US1,392 an ounce for the February contract on Comex, silver is up $0.565 to $28.82 and copper is down $0.013 to $4.09 a pound. Oil is up $0.09 at $88.37 for January light crude in New York.
