Following strong leads from Wall Street with better than expected economic growth and jobs data, the Australian share market has been bounding ahead today and is now tracking 0.62 per cent up at noon.
The local bourse opened in the black and continued to gain momentum with mostly all of the sectors trading higher in the first two hours of trade with Healthcare stocks adding the most fuel. The likes of Ramsay Health Care
(ASX:RHC), CSL
(ASX:CSL), Ansell
(ASX:ANN) are all trading around 1 per cent higher.
Copping the most selling today though, is the Energy space, after US crude oil prices settled near a 6-week low overnight, with the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey keeping refiners offline.
The S&P/ASX 200 index is 35 points up at 5,705.
On the futures market the SPI is 23 points higher.
Asian markets Japan’s Nikkei has added 0.64 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has lost 0.55 per cent and the Shanghai Composite has gained 0.07 per cent.
Local economic news Business capital spending rose 0.8 per cent in June quarter in seasonally terms, beating forecasts it would rise by 0.5 per cent. It’s good news as the data is input into the calculation of economic growth.
Private sector credit data from the RBA also rose 0.5 per cent, on par with the consensus.
Company news Aurelia Metals
(ASX:AMI) has reported record profits, sales and cash flows for the year to 30 June 2017 with its net profit jumping 77 per cent to $19.3 million. The gold, lead, silver, copper and zinc mining company’s revenue also was on the upside, increasing 18 per cent on FY16 to around $109 million in FY17. Shares in Aurelia
(ASX:ARI) are trading 2.7 per cent higher to $0.19.
Kresta Holdings
(ASX:KRS) has dived deeper into the red, reporting a net loss after tax of $1.9 million. The result marks a 125 per cent dip from the prior corresponding period. In further negative news, the supplier of custom made curtains, blinds, shutters and awnings’ revenue fell 8.2 per cent to $38.5 million. Shares in Kresta last traded at $0.09.
Best and worst performersThe best performing sector is Healthcare, gaining 1.2 per cent to 22,398. Shares in Nanosonics Limited
(ASX:NAN) have risen 4.13 per cent and trading at $2.52. Shares in Sigma Healthcare Limited
(ASX:SIG) and Resmed
(ASX:RMD) are also stronger.
The worst performing sector is Energy, falling 1.53 per cent to 9,167. Shares in Caltex Australia Limited
(ASX:CTX) have fallen 2.48 per cent, trading at $33.39. Shares in Worleyparsons Limited
(ASX:WOR) and Whitehaven Coal Limited
(ASX:WHC) are also lower.
Commodities and the dollarGold is trading at $US1,302 an ounce and one Australian dollar is buying 78.97.
