The Australian share market is in back pedal mode today, following negative leads from Wall Street, coupled with a mixed bag of companies news has left the ASX200 trading below its 6,000 milestone and in selling territory.
The property sector is largely putting a cap a gains and leading over half of the market lower. It comes as Macquarie Atlas Road
(ASX:MQA) shares fell about 4 per cent after Macquarie Group
(ASX:MQG) completed its 11.3 per cent sale in the property fund overnight, selling 76 million shares at $6.00 per share.
All the big banks and insurance companies are trading below the line today while Fairfax
(ASX:FXJ) shares are copping a hit after it announced 9.6 million shares will be released from voluntary escrow on 1 January 2018.
Going the other way and charging forth are the Telcos, Industrials, the Discretionary and Staple sectors. The likes of Crown Resorts
(ASX:CWN), Cleanaway
(ASX:CWY) have made good ground and so too has Transurban
(ASX:TCL) after it completed a $1.9 billion capital raise.
The S&P/ASX 200 index is 22 points lower or 0.34 per cent lower at 5,989.
On the futures market the SPI is 16 points lower.
Company newsCrown Resorts
(ASX:CWN) made its way as one of the star performers today, with its shares jumping over 4 per cent, after it announced it’s selling a vacant site on Las Vegas Boulevard for US$300 million. The deal is set to be completed late January 2018. It also plans to sell its Ceasars shares for US$54 million as well as part of its Hunter Valley property and operations in NSW for $62.5 million. James Packer will also buy two floors of the Crown Sydney Hotel resort for $60 million from Crown. The sales form part of the Crown’s debt reduction plan. Shares Crown Resorts are trading 4 per cent higher at $12.95
Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s
(ASX:CBA) Group Executive Marketing and Strategy, Vittoria Shortt, has been given the lead role of its New Zealand owned bank, ASB. Vittoria will take the hot seat as CEO in February 2018, taking over from the retiring Barbara Chapman. Vittoria joined ASB’s parent company, CBA in 2002 as a native kiwi, holding various executive roles at CBA and Bankwest, reporting directly to CEO Ian Narev. Shares in CBA are 0.7 per cent lower at $79.86.
IPOsTyre distributor, National Tyre & Wheel Limited
(ASX:NTD) started trading today, floating with an issue price of $1.00. It opened at $1.30 and is currently trading at $1.29
Best and worst performersThe best performing sector is Telcos, gaining 0.4 per cent to 1,324. Shares in Vocus Group
(ASX:VOC) have risen 1 per cent and trading at $2.88. Shares in Telstra Corporation
(ASX:TLS) are higher and Chorus
(ASX:CNU) is flat.
The worst performing sector is Reits, falling 1 per cent to 1,448. Shares in Westfield Corporation
(ASX:WFD) have fallen 1.6 per cent, trading at $9.34. Shares in Scentre Group
(ASX:SCG) and Dexus
(ASX:DXS) are also lower.
Commodities and the dollarGold is trading at $US1,254 an ounce and one Australian dollar is buying 76.70 US cents.
CryptocurrenciesBitcoin has gained 3.4 per cent in the last 24 hours to $16,976
Ethereum fallen by about over 7 per cent to $670.83
And Litecoin has fallen about 10 per cent to $476
