The Australian share market rose early on the back of a better-than-expected employment read out of the US over the weekend. The market held on to most of those gains throughout the session on increased confidence with some fresh M&A activity hitting the market.
The S&P/ASX200 Index lifted 25 points to close at 4,887. On the futures market, the SPI is up 34 points.
In economic news: The total number of job advertisements in Australian newspapers and on the internet rose 1.3 per cent in March from February. It’s the 11th straight increase. And the TD Securities-Melbourne Institute trimmed mean measure of underlying inflation rose 0.3 per cent in March to be up 2.4 per cent for the year.
In company news: Wesfarmers’ (ASX:WES) resources division had cause for celebration today. Coking coal sold by the conglomerate for the June quarter will price at 328 dollars a tonne. That’s a 53 per cent increase on the previous quarter. Miners in Queensland’s Bowen Basin have been hit in recent times by record rainfall in the region...this latest price rise a welcome advantage. The company also announced force majeure on its export operations is expected to be lifted early this month. Shares in Wesfarmers gained 1.02 per cent to close at $32.78.
And Virgin (ASX:VBA) says it’s reached a satisfactory agreement with IT company Navitaire following last year's reservation disruptions. The outage of Virgin Blue's Navitaire reservations, check-in and operating systems between September 26 and October 6, 2010, shaved $15 million to $20 million off its pre-tax profit. Meanwhile Qantas (ASX:QAN) says it’s putting up for sale its 21-strong fleet of ageing Boeing 737-400 aircraft - known as the workhorse of the skies - as it cuts flights because of the uncertain outlook for travel demand. Shares in Virgin closed steady at 31.5 cents. Meanwhile Shares in Qantas rose 0.92 per cent to close at $2.20.
Also making news: Santos (ASX:STO) announced it’s made a discovery in Western Australia’s Car-nar-van Basin – southwest of Chevron’s Gorgon-1 gas field. And Abra Mining (ASX:AII) jumped after receiving a 57.5 million dollar cash takeover offer from its largest shareholder...China’s Hunan Nonferrous.
In other news: Woolworths Ltd (ASX:WOW) has announced that its CEO Michael Luscombe will retire after five years in the role, and 33 years with Australia’s largest retailer. The current chief operating officer of Woolworth’s food and petrol division, Grant O'Brien, will succeed him. And Hong-Hong listed Minmetals Resources has announced a $6.3 billion takeover bid for dual-listed copper miner Equinox Minerals Ltd (ASX:EQN)Minmetals is a subsidiary of the China Minmetals Corporation and currently holds a 4.2 per cent interest in Equinox.
To the best and worst performing sectors now: The best performing sector today was Real Estate Investment Trust gaining 9 points to close at 871. The worst performing sector was the Financials excluding Real Estate Investments Trusts Index (or the banks) falling 2 points to close at 5276.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX200 was Equinox shares rising 28.72 per cent to close at $7.35. Shares in Murchison and Energy World also closed in positive territory. The worst performing stock was IAG, shedding 1.66 per cent to close at $3.55. Shares in Downer EDI and Eldorado also closed weaker today.
In commodities, gold is trading at $US1,431 an ounce and Light crude is 43 cents firmer at $US108.37 a barrel.
