Following stellar leads from Wall Street, with US stocks closing at their best level this season, the Australian share market is charging ahead. The local bourse shot straight up the open, maintaining its elevation in the first two hours of trade and is now tracking 0.72 per cent up (at 12.20pm).
Fuelling the rally though are REITs, adding 1.9 per cent, with real estate investment trust GPT
(ASX:GPT) announcing higher NPAT before the market opened, while Charter Hall’s Retail Reit
(ASX:CQR) also reported stronger results adding to the rally.
Mostly all sectors are rallying ahead, with the exception of Energy which is trading lower after the oil price dropped overnight, while Santos
(ASX:STO) also annouced it's expecting a write down, which tolled on the energy sector.
Health Care and Industrials are in second and third spots as the best performers this session, trading up around 1 per cent.
The S&P/ASX 200 index is 41 points up at 5,772.
On the futures market the SPI is 41 points higher.
Asian markets Japan’s Nikkei has added 1.29 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has added 0.33 per cent and the Shanghai Composite has gained 0.44 per cent.
Local economic news The ABS has reported trend car sales rose 0.7 per cent in July, with the biggest growth coming from sporty utility vehicles which rose 1 per cent in the period.
Company newsSantos
(ASX:STO) says it’s expecting to recognise a non-cash impairment of about US$690 million after tax for its 2017 half year results. The independent oil and gas producer says its expecting the write down on the back of lower oil prices. It comes as Santos lowered its Brent oil price forecasts for 2017, right through to 2022. Santos ultimately made the write-down announcement after it considered a range of assumptions for oil prices, exchange rates, discount rates, production and costs, which had changed since its last value assessment at the end 2016. Shares in Santos
(ASX:STO) are trading 1.79 per cent lower at $3.29.
Charter Hall Retail Reit
(ASX:CQR) has reported its statutory profit rose 39.1 per cent to $251.3 million in the 2017 financial year. The property manager’s operating earnings hit $123.3 million, or 30.4 cents per unit, on par with FY16’s. The company’s distributions came in at 28.1 cents per unit, also in line with the prior corresponding period. Meantime the group’s portfolio value rose 8.4 per cent to $2.5 billion at June 2016. Shares in Charter Hall Retail Reit
(ASX:CQR) are trading 0.49 per cent higher at $4.09
Best and worst performersThe best performing sector is REITs, gaining 1.84 per cent to 1,330. Shares in GPT
(ASX:GPT) have risen 3.66 per cent and trading at $4.96. Shares in Charter Hall Group
(ASX:CHC) and Mirvac Group
(ASX:MGR) are also stronger.
The worst performing sector is Energy, falling 0.94 per cent to 8,683. Shares in Beach Energy
(ASX:BPT) have fallen 1.95 per cent, trading at $0.63. Shares in Santos
(ASX:STO) and Origin Energy
(ASX:ORG) are also lower.
Commodities and the dollar: Gold is trading at $US1,276 an ounce and one Australian dollar is buying 78.71 US cents.
