It has been a positive day of trade, playing catch-up for a strong end to the week for the Australian share market. After opening in the black the local bourse continued climb throughout the day, closing on or near its highs.
Leading the charge was Telcos, with heavyweight Telstra
(ASX:TLS) up 1.77 per cent. Materials and Energy also performed well, with BHP Billiton Limited
(ASX:BHP) and Rio Tinto
(ASX:RIO) up 1.99 and 1.85 per cent respectively. Santos
(ASX:STO) also did well, up 2.25 per cent.
At the closing bell the S&P/ASX 200 index closed 59 points up, or 1.04 per cent higher to finish at 5,711. Over the week it gained 29 points.
The value of trades was $4.1 billion on volume of 602 million shares at the close of trade. The top three stocks by value were Commonwealth Bank of Australia
(ASX:CBA) BHP Billiton Limited
(ASX:BHP) and Rio Tinto Limited
(ASX:RIO).
On the futures market the SPI is 51 points up.
Asian marketsJapan’s Nikkei has added 0.3 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has added 0.3 per cent and the Shanghai Composite is still on a trading holiday.
Wall Street The Dow Jones added 1.6 per cent, The S&P 500 added 1.3 per cent and the tech heavy Nasdaq gained 1.4 per cent, while the 100 index added/ 1.3 per cent.
Local economic newsThe AIG Housing Industry Association has reported a drop in Australia’s Performance of Construction index, to 54.7 in September, from 55.3 in August. Despite the slip, it still remained above the 50 point level indicating expansion thanks to continuing engineering work and house building.
Company news Finders Resources
(ASX:FND) has received a takeover offer from Indonesian based Eastern Fields Development. The Perth based mining company has copper, gold projects in Indonesia. The offer is for $0.23 per Finders share. Eastern Fields Development have indicated they will consider divestment of all shares in Finders if the takeover is unsuccessful. Shares in Finders Resources
(ASX:FND) closed 2.17 per cent higher at $0.24
Centuria Capital Group
(ASX:CNI) announced it has completed the institutional component of its accelerated non-renounceable entitlement offer, raising approximately $36 million.
Carnegie Clean Energy
(ASX:CCE) has won a $15.75 million grant, from the Western Australian government for its Albany Wave Energy Project.
Seek
(ASX:SEK) has received a total $176 US million dollars in proceeds from the completion of its Zhaopin merger transaction.
Best and worst performers The best performing sector was Telcos adding 1.65 per cent to close at 1, 217.
The worst performing sector was Utilities shedding 0.3 per cent to close at 7,858 points.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Orocobre
(ASX:ORE), rising 5.95 per cent to close at $5.16. Shares in Whitehaven
(ASX:WHC) and oOH! Media
(ASX:OML) also closed higher.
The worst performing stock was Greencross Limited
(ASX:GXL), dropping 1.51 per cent to close at $5.21. Shares in Myer Holdings
(ASX:MYR) and CSR
(ASX:CSR) also closed lower.
Commodities and the dollarGold is trading at $1,268 US an ounce.
Light crude is up 77c at $50.75US barrel.
One Australian dollar is buying 77.57 US cents.
