The Australian share market is having a lacklustre start to the Friday session. The local bourse opened in the red, falling almost 1 per cent in the first 10 minutes of trade, following falls on Wall Street.
It comes as Apple’s shares and other tech stocks fell and the oil price came under pressure, with a big drop in crude oil weighing on gasoline stocks.
That left two of the major US indices, the Nasdaq and the S&P500 to close about 1 per cent lower each.
US crude has however edged up ever so slightly and ASX200 started to track sideways in the first two hours of trade. At midday, it was tracking 1.32 per cent lower.
There are no surprises in saying, Energy is the biggest drag on our market today, followed by falls in Health Care and Industrials will all sectors trading in the red.
The S&P/ASX 200 index is 77 points down at 5,682.
On the futures market the SPI is 64 points lower.
Asian markets Japan’s Nikkei has lost 0.3 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has fallen 0.55 per cent and the Shanghai Composite has lost 0.4 per cent.
To company newsTransurban
(ASX:TCL) has announced it has closed a new financing syndicated facility at $1.1 billion. The toll road operator’s new facility will be used to refinance its existing $900 million corporate working capital facilities. Transurban says the funds will also provide additional liquidity and meet the group’s ongoing funding requirements. The facility is structured across three tranches of 3, 4 and 5 years. Shares in Transurban
(ASX:TCL) are trading down 1.56 per cent at $11.39.
Michael Hill
(ASX:MHJ) has announced its gross margin will be slightly down for the 30 June 2017 financial year on the back of tougher than expected Australasian markets. The jewellery retailer says the weaker result is also expected after it discounted surplus inventory, to help fund its branded collection rollout. Meantime, over the 12 months to 30 June 2017, Michael Hill saw a 6 per cent uptick in total store sales, while same store sales grew 1.5 per cent in the period. Michael Hill also etched 3 per cent growth in same store sales for the June quarter. Shares in Michael Hill
(ASX:MHJ) are trading down 0.43 per cent at $1.16.
The best and worst performersThe best of a bad bunch is the Telcos space, falling 0.55 per cent to 1,525. Shares in Vocus Group Limited
(ASX:VOC) have risen 0.44 per cent and trading at $3.46. Shares in Telstra Corporation Limited
(ASX:TLS) and Chorus Limited
(ASX:CNU) are trading lower.
The worst performing sector is Energy, falling 1.95 per cent to 8,566. Shares in Whitehaven Coal Limited (ASX: WHC) have fallen 3.09 per cent, trading at $2.82. Shares in Worleyparsons Limited
(ASX:WOR) and Woodside Petroleum Limited
(ASX:WPL) are also lower.
Commodities and the dollarGold is trading at $US1,220 an ounce and one Australian dollar is buying 75.77 US cents.
