The Australian share market has rebounded today, ending the day in the black for the first time since this time last week, with all sectors closing in positive territory. The drought on economic indicators was finally broken today, with strong capital expenditure data having a positive effect on the market.
The S&P/ASX200 Index rose 76 points to close at 4,660. On the futures market, the SPI is 80 points higher.
In economic news, mortgage defaults surged in the first quarter, with the number of borrowers falling behind on repayments by a month or more climbing from 1.4 per cent to 1.79 per cent.
Turning to company news: Westpac Banking Corporation (ASX:WBC) owned group St George Bank has entered the interest rate wars. The bank lowered its two-year fixed home loan rate by 0.1 percentage point to a price of 6.99 per cent. Westpac shares ended the day up 2.44 per cent to close at $22.25.
Caltex Australia Ltd (ASX:CTX) refiner margins contracted in April by 9.2 per cent from April 2010 to April 2011. Crude oil price increases also negatively affected the Caltex refiner margin. The Japanese earthquake and conflict in Libya are being blamed for the rise in price of crude oil. Caltex shares ended the day up 1.76 per cent to close at $13.87.
Woodside Petroleum Ltd’s (ASX:WPL) new managing director, Peter Coleman, will not be welcome at ExxonMobil negotiations warns the US oil and gas giant, according to Fairfax Media. Mr Coleman is the former Exxon global operations manager, due to start his new job at Woodside on Monday.
Village Roadshow Entertainment Group, which is partly owned by Village Roadshow Ltd (ASX:VRL), has applied to list on the Hong Kong stock exchange. The deal could raise as much as $US300 million.
Taking a look at earlier headlines, Austar United Communications Ltd (ASX:AUN) has confirmed Foxtel launched a formal bid worth almost $2 billion for Liberty Global’s 54 per cent stake in Austar.
And GrainCorp Ltd (ASX:GNC) has posted a 66 per cent lift in first half net profit and boosted its full year guidance. In the six months to March 31 the grain producer’s net profit rose to $88 million, from $35 million the year before.
To the best and worst performers. All sectors closed in the black. The best performing sector today was Energy, rising 392 points to close at 16,143. The sector with the smallest gains was Telco Services, rising 3 points to close at 1,028 points.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX200 was White Energy Company, shares gained 11.42 per cent to close at $1.80.5. Shares in Aurora Oil & Gas and GrainCorp also ended the day stronger.
The worst performing stock today was PaperlinX falling 2.86 per cent to close at $0.17. Shares in SP AusNet and Telecom Corporation of New Zealand also closed in the red today.
In commodities, gold is trading at $US1,530 an ounce and Light crude is up $0.28 cents at $US101.60 a barrel.
