The Australian share market is expected to start the week lower, with global markets jittery amid the unfolding political crisis in Egypt. On Friday US stocks fell to the greatest single-day loss in almost six months. The unrest in North Africa and the Middle East prompted a sell-off on Wall St and drove most key indices down.
On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, closed 166 points lower to 11,824, S&P500 lost 23 points to close 1,276 and the NASDAQ fell 68 points to close 2,687.
European stocks were lower: London’s FTSE down 84 points, Paris down 57 and Frankfurt down 53.
To Asian markets, stocks were mixed: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 163 points, Tokyo was down 118 points and China’s Shanghai Composite added 4 points.
The Australian share market finished lower on Friday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index dropped 31 points to close at 4,775 and on the futures market the SPI is down 49 points. Turning to currencies and the Australian Dollar at 8:40AM was buying 98.95 US cents, 62.5 Pence Sterling, 81.15 Yen and 72.79 Euro cents. Company news: On Friday shares in Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX:WES) slipped 0.3 per cent to close at $33.75. The Coles supermarkets chain is being tipped to have outperformed rival-retailer Woolworths Ltd (ASX:WOW), with some analysts expecting a 5 per cent lift in Coles food and liquor sales when Wesfarmers today reports its second-quarter sales figures. Should Coles trump Woolies it would represent the sixth quarter in a row that Coles had posted higher earnings on comparable store sales growth. Last week Woolworths downgraded earnings guidance for the 2011 financial year, despite posting a 3.8 per cent rise in sales growth to $28.3 billion in the first half of the year. Wesfarmers posted a net profit of $1.6 billion in the year to 30 June 2010.
On Friday shares in BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP) fell 1.06 per cent to close at $44.69. Global miners BHP and Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO) are facing calls from investors to abandon “wasteful megadeals” and instead turn to multi-billion pound share buyback schemes, according to a report in The Sunday Telegraph. While specific shareholders have not been named, those that have inked their complaints are believed to have requested commitments from the boards that the miner’s strong balance sheets are used to return cash to investors. Amid mounting speculation that BHP is eyeing off another significant takeover target, the paper says institutional investors have even threatened to vote-down the re-election of key board members who don’t agree with the proposed commitments. In the year to 30 June 2010, BHP reported a net profit of $15.3 billion.
Ex-dividends: Alcoa is going ex-dividend today with a ex-dividend of $2.559 cents, unfranked. Coming up tomorrow is Katana Capital with a $0.01 cent fully franked dividend.
To commodities: Gold is up $26.10 to $US1,344 an ounce for the February contract on Comex, silver is up $0.29 to $27.32 for March and copper is up $0.01 to $4.35 a pound. Oil is up $2.23 at $87.87 a barrel for March light crude in New York.
