The Australian market looks set for a positive start, after Wall St closed higher for the third consecutive day. Merger and acquisitions activity in the telecommunications sector pulled the focus away from Japan and Libya.
Turning to the US, in economic news: The National Association of Realtors reported existing home sales pulled back in February after three months of increases. Homes sold dropped to an annual rate of 4.88 million in the month, 9.6 per cent lower than the month before.
To the figures: The Dow Jones Industrial Average started the week 178 points higher closing at 12,037, S&P500 gained 19 points to close at 1,298 and the NASDAQ lifted 48 points to close at 2,692.
European stocks ended higher on Monday: London’s FTSE up 68 points, Paris up 94 and Frankfurt up 152.
To Asian markets and stocks were also higher: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 385, Tokyo’s Nikkei was closed and China’s Shanghai Composite was up 2 points.
The Australian share market started the week higher: The S&P/ASX 200 Index improved 16 points to close at 4,643. While on the futures market the SPI is currently 30 points higher.
Turning to currencies and the Australian Dollar at 8:35AM was buying $US1.0065 cents, 61.74 Pence Sterling, 81.67 Yen and 70.79 Euro cents.
Company news: On Monday shares in Qantas Airways (ASX:QAN) firmed 0.48 per cent to close at $2.10. Qantas’s budget arm Jetstar has halved the number of flights from Australia to Tokyo as it responds to lower demand after Japanese earthquake. With fears still fresh about the Japanese nuclear power plant crisis, Jetstar has cautioned that lessening of capacity could continue in the longer term. For the half year ended on 31 December 2010, Qantas reported a net profit of $239 million.
Yesterday shares Foster’s Group Ltd (ASX:FGL) rose 1.47 per cent to close at $5.53. The managing director of Australia's largest brewer Foster’s Group could score over $11 million from a successful demerger of the company’s wine and beer businesses, according to Australian Financial Review. The AFR says Ian Johnston would receive a $1.8 million termination payment in addition to a short-term bonus of almost $2 million and long-term incentive shares. The proposed demerger of Carlton and United Breweries and Treasury Wine Estates will be put to a shareholder vote at the end of April. For the half year ended on 31 December 2010 Foster's Group’s net profit fell 12 per cent to $312 million.
Ex-dividends: Three companies are going ex-dividend today: AP Eagers with a $0.41 fully franked dividend, Kathmandu Holdings with a $0.022 unfranked dividend and Vita Life Sciences with a $0.005 fully franked dividend. Coming up tomorrow is Seek with a $0.07 fully franked dividend.
Commodities: Gold is up $10.30 to $US1,426 an ounce for the April contract on Comex, silver is up $0.94 to $36.00 for May and copper is down $0.05 at $4.29 a pound. Oil is up $1.26 at $102.33 a barrel for April light crude in New York.
