Stellar start to week: 0.75% higher at Midday

Market Reports

by Jessica Amir

The Australian share market has kicked of the trading week with a bang, defying mostly red leads from Wall Street where job data disappointed US traders.

All of our sectors are trading higher today with Telcos leading the charge, followed from Consumer Discretionary.

The likes of Webjet (ASX:WEB), Ardent Leisure (ASX:AAD) and Crown Resorts (ASX:CWN) all trading over 1 per cent higher, while Aristrocrat (ASX:ALL) is over 2 per cent up. In the Staples space, Select Harvest (ASX:SHV) is a whopping 20 per cent higher.

The S&P/ASX 200 index is 45 points up or 0.75 per cent higher at 5,753.

On the futures market the SPI is 36 points higher.

Asian markets 

Japan’s Nikkei is not trading for a public holiday, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has added 0.28 per cent and the Shanghai Composite has gained 0.28 per cent.

Cmpany news

Woodside Petroleum (ASX:WPL) has commenced production at its onshore facility in Western Australia, Wheatstone LNG. Woodside is expecting first LNG cargo in the coming weeks. The company says it’s a world class asset and one of its priorities for 2017, with the second train of production expected in six to eight months. Once fully operational, it will contribute over 13 thousand Barrels of Oil Equivalents (mmboe) to Woodside’s annual production. Shares in Woodside Petroleum (ASX:WPL) are trading flat at $29.03.

Austal (ASX:ASB), a global ship building company has won a contract for the 15th Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) from the US Navy. The contract is confidential but Austal says each 127 metre long ship is set to cost up to $750 million. At the same time the company also secured $190 million of new contracts to build two 117 metre trimaran ferries for a Spanish customer. Shares in Austal (ASX:ASB) are trading 8.95 per cent higher at $1.77.

IPOs

MCP Master Income Trust (ASX:MXT) started trading today. The trust that offers exposure to Australian corporate loans floated with an issue price of $2.00, opened at $2.01 and is currently trading at $2.04.

And in other news, Bojun Agricultural Holdings (ASX:BAH) is planning an upcoming IPO.

Best and worst performers

The best performing sector is Telcos, gaining 1.3 per cent to 1,232. Shares in Telstra Corporation (ASX:TLS) have risen 1.45 per cent and trading at $3.49. Shares in Vocus Group (ASX:VOC) and Spark New Zealand (ASX:SPK) are also stronger.

The sector gaining the least today Energy, rising 0.1 per cent to 9,244. Shares in Beach Energy (ASX:BPT) have fallen 1.47 per cent, trading at $0.84. Shares in Origin Energy (ASX:ORG) and Santos (ASX:STO) are also lower.

Gold and the dollar

Gold is trading at $US1,277 an ounce and one Australian dollar is buying 77.77 US cents.

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