Aussie shares look to open in the black today, following positive offshore leads. The broader US market closed with modest gains despite the Dow finishing lower, ahead of the holiday shortened week. In Europe the major indices ended higher, as the cooler weather helped advance Britain’s utility stocks and concerns over the euro-zone’s debt woes eased in late trade.
On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, closed 14 points lower to 11,478. S&P500 lifted 3 points to 1,247 and the NASDAQ added 7 points to 2,650.
European stocks were stronger: London’s FTSE up 20 points, Paris up 18 and Frankfurt is up 36.
To Asian markets, stocks were weaker: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 76 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei down 87 points and China’s Shanghai Composite down 41 points.
The Australian share market finished lower on Monday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 27 points lower at 4,737 and on the futures market the SPI is up 24 points. Turning to currencies and the Aussie Dollar at 8:35AM was buying 99.39 US cents, 64.08 Pence Sterling, 83.26 Yen and 75.76 Euro cents.
In economic news: Due out today, the Reserve Bank of Australia’s monetary policy meeting minutes.
Company news: Shares in Santos Ltd (ASX:STO) rose 4.09 per cent on Monday to close at $13.50. Santos has announced that it has successfully completed a $500 million institutional placement. The oil and gas producer says the placement was heavily oversubscribed and now completes the equity funding for Santos’ share of the Gladstone Liquefied Natural Gas project. Santos generated a net profit of $198 million in the 2010 financial year.
Shares in Leighton Holdings Ltd (ASX:LEI) fell 1.8 per cent on Monday to close at $32.11. Leighton’s wholly owned subsidiary John Holland, has scored a $110 million contract from the Australian Department of Defence. The property developer will construct facilities and infrastructure at the Singleton Army Base in New South Wales. Work will start straight away and is expected by be finished by the end of 2012. Leighton Holdings posted a net profit of $615 million in the 2010 financial year. Ex-dividends: Thorn Group is going ex-dividend today with a 3.54 cent fully franked dividend. Among those coming this Thursday are Ardent Leisure and Australian Infrastructure Fund. To commodities: Gold is up $6.90 to $US1,386 an ounce for the February contract on Comex, silver is up $0.22 to $29.36 for March and copper is up $0.05 to $4.21 a pound. Oil is up $0.79 at $88.81 for January light crude in New York.
