The Australian share market is poised make modest gains today as it receives mixed to positive leads from offshore trading over the weekend. Two of three key Wall St indices were higher, yet energy and precious metals prices were lower.
On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, gained 49 points to close at 11872. S&P500 added 3 points to close 1283 and the NASDAQ slid 15 points to close 2690European stocks were higher: London’s FTSE up 28 points, Paris up 53 and Frankfurt up 38.
To Asian markets, stocks were mixed: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 127 points, Tokyo fell 163 points and China’s Shanghai Composite was up 38 points.
The Australian share market closed weaker on Friday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index dropped 28 points to close at 4756 and on the futures market the SPI is up 10 points. Turning to currencies and the Aussie Dollar at 7:50AM was buying 99 US cents, 61.91 Pence Sterling, 81.89 Yen and 72.69 Euro cents.
In local economic news: The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) releases producer price indices for the December quarter.
Company news: On Friday shares in BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP) closed 1.06 per cent lower at $44.71. BHP Billiton says it will donate an additional $10 million to the Queensland Premier’s Disaster Relief Appeal. The huge donation, announced on Sunday, is in addition to the $1 million announced by the mining giant on January 1. BHP says the monetary donation also adds to the company’s significant in-kind contributions and volunteer efforts. BHP’s chief executive Marius Kloppers says as a major employer in Queensland, he wanted the firm to play a leading role in the recovery efforts. For the year ended 30 June 2010, BHP reported a net profit of $15.3 billion.
On Friday shares in National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX:NAB) closed 0.75 per cent higher at $24.33. National Australia Bank says it will defend a shareholders’ class action against it for allegedly failing to disclose the full extent of losses during the global financial early enough. Around 250 institutional and retail investors are seeking about $450 million worth of losses as part of a class action headed by legal firm Maurice Blackburn. For the year ended 30 September 2010, National Australia Bank reported a net profit of $4.2 billion.
Ex-dividends: There are no companies going ex-dividend today. Coming up tomorrow is Ozgrowth Ltd (ASX:OZG) and Westoz Investment Company Ltd (ASX:WIC).
To commodities: Gold is down $5.50 to $1341 US an ounce for the February contract on Comex, silver is down 5 cents to $27.43 for March and copper is up 4 cents to $4.31 a pound. Oil is down 48 cents at $89.11 US cents a barrel for February light crude in New York.
