The Australian share market is having another lacklustre day, with today’s trading session being weighed down by North Korea’s missile launch over Japan.
The local bourse took a dive at the open and has continued to lose ground in the first two hours of trade, with weak sentiment flowing through all of the sectors except utilities.
AGL
(ASX:AGL) is one of the standouts, bucking the trend and trading over 1 per cent higher, while the poultry company, Inghams Group
(ASX:ING) is about 2 per cent higher.
The S&P/ASX 200 index is 55 points down at 5,655 and is now tracking 0.97 per cent down at noon.
On the futures market the SPI is 57 points lower.
Asian markets Japan’s Nikkei has lost 0.75 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has shed 0.4 per cent and the Shanghai Composite has gained 0.2 per cent.
Company newsCooper Energy
(ASX:COE) has reported a 65 per cent fall in its net attributable loss to $12.3 million for the 2017 financial year. The commercial oil and gas company wrote down $3.6 million in significant impairments on the back of its Indonesian assets and penalties against the company’s Tunisian exit. In good news for the company its revenue rose 71 per cent over the 12 months to $35 million. Shares in Cooper Energy
(ASX:COE) last traded at $0.35.
Retail Food Group Limited
(ASX:RFG) has reported a 14 per cent lift in net profit after tax to $75.7 million for FY17. Its revenue from operations rose 27 percent to $349.3 million over the 12 months to 30 June 2017. Retail food group is set to pay a fully franked dividend of 15 cents per share. Shares in Retail Food Group Limited
(ASX:RFG) lost 1.04 per cent to $4.75.
Best and worst performersThe best performing sector is Utilites, gaining 0.4 per cent to 8,186 Shares in AGL Energy Limited
(ASX:AGL) have risen 1.03 per cent and trading at $23.54. Shares in APA Group
(ASX:APA) and Ausnet Services Limited
(ASX:AST) are also stronger.
The worst performing sector is Financials, falling 1.6 per cent to 6,280. Shares in Macquarie Group Limited
(ASX:MQG) have fallen 2.95 per cent, trading at $85.39. Shares in QBE Insurance Group Limited
(ASX:QBE) and Suncorp Group Limited
(ASX:SUN) are also lower.
Commodities and the dollarGold is trading at $US1,317 an ounce and one Australian dollar is buying 79.30 US cents.
