The Australian share market has dipped 0.5 per cent at noon, despite a positive lead from Wall St. Following China's latest rate hike, the miners have fallen under the threat of weakening demand for Australian exports. BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP) and Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO) are both down, with BlueScope Steel Ltd (ASX:BSL) slumping over 5 per cent after posting a first half loss of $55 million.
The S&P/ASX200 index has lost 44 points and is 4,893 at noon. On the futures market the SPI down 46 points.
Company news: Woodside Petroleum Ltd (ASX:WPL) has missed market forecasts, despite posting a 7 per cent improvement in net profit and 35 per cent increase in underlying profit for the 2010 financial year. The oil and gas company posted a net profit of $1.6 billion and underlying profit of $1.4 billion in the 2010 calendar year. A 10 per cent drop in annual production was offset by a 20 per cent jump in sales revenue to just over $4 billion on the back of stronger commodity prices and the completion of liquefied natural gas pricing talks. A fully franked final dividend of $US0.05 cents has been declared, bringing the full year dividends to $US1.05 cents. Shares in Woodside Petroleum have firmed 0.23 per cent and are trading at $42.84.
Shares in Flight Centre Ltd (ASX:FLT) have fallen despite the travel agent reporting a record first-half net profit and pre-tax profit. In the six months to 31 December Flight Centre says net profit grew 38 per cent to $70.5 million and pre-tax profit rose 37 per cent to $101.1 million. Managing director Graham Turner has confirmed the company is targeting a full year profit before tax of between $220 million and $240 million, which represents between 10 to 20 per cent growth. A fully franked interim dividend of 36 cents has been declared. Shares in Flight Centre are down 2.99 per cent at noon and trading at $22.72.
To the best and worst performers and all sectors are lower at midday. The sector with the smallest loss is Utilities, easing 4 points to 4324. Shares in Envestra have gained 1.68 per cent and are $0.605. Shares in Duet Group and APA Group have also lifted at midday. The worst performing sector is Telco Services, falling 51 points to 960. Shares in Telstra have dropped 5.41 per cent to $2.80. Shares in Telecom Corporation of New Zealand and iiNet have also dropped at midday.
To New Zealand: The NZSX50 has lost 30 points. Taking a look at the top 4 stocks by turnover, Fletcher Building is at the top of the list with stock down 1.19 per cent at $8.29, followed by Telecom Corporation of New Zealand, Goodman Property Trust and Westpac.
To gold and the dollar:Gold is trading at $US1391 an ounce and the Aussie dollar is buying $1.0131 US cents.
