The SPI is pointing to a steady start for Aussie shares, despite weaker offshore leads. On Monday US markets were closed for the national Martin Luther King holiday. Europe closed mixed on lingering sovereign debt concerns.
Taking a closer look, London’s FTSE closed 16 points down, Paris down 8 and Frankfurt up 2.
To Asian markets, stocks were also mixed: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 126 points, Tokyo was up 4 points and China’s Shanghai Composite closed 85 points down.
The Australian share market finished lower on Monday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 38 points to close at 4,763 and on the futures market the SPI is up 3 points. Turning to currencies and the Australian Dollar at 8:30AM was buying 99.36 US cents, 62.57 Pence Sterling, 82.21 Yen and 74.8 Euro cents.
Company news: Yesterday shares in BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP) closed 1.2 per cent lower at $45.30. Financial services firm UBS has warned BHP's coking coal yield could fall by almost a third year-on-year as a result of unseasonal heavy rain at its Australian and South African operations. According to a Reuters report, both BHP and Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO) are expected to post a fall in coal output in their latest production reports, though iron ore output is likely to rise on the back of Chinese demand. Rio is due to release its fourth quarter operations review today, while BHP’s December-quarter production figures are due this Thursday. For the year ended 30 June 2010, BHP generated a net profit of $15.3 billion.
On Monday shares in Eastern Star Gas Ltd (ASX:ESG) dropped 1.17 per cent to close at $0.845. Eastern Star Gas has advanced plans for its $1 billion coal seam gas-fired LNG Newcastle Project, confirming it has committed to buying $22.5 million of land to house the project. Eastern Star Gas says the transaction will be completed by late February this year, and the company expects to announce that it has begun front end engineering and design study within the next few weeks. In the year to 30 June 2010, Eastern Star Gas booked a net loss of $6.54 million.
