The Australia share market erased about half of Friday’s gains with most sectors in loss territory at noon and the health sector leading the decline.
From the get go, we had negative leads to follow as Wall Street closed in the red on the back of the tech heavy Nasdaq dropping 1.5 per cent, after Intel fell 8.5 per cent and Twitter shed 20 per cent on monthly users falling.
But we are seeing the likes of AMP
(ASX:AMP) trade over 4 per cent higher, clawing back from its sharp fall on Friday. With the other top four top performing stocks making gains of 1 to about 3 per cent.
The mining heavy weights are trading in the red, despite the iron ore price rising almost 2 per cent [1.8 per cent] to US$67.49, as the price of rebar hit a five-year high.
The S&P/ASX 200 index is 29 points or 0.45 per cent lower at 6,272, still at 10 year highs. On the futures market the SPI is 40 points lower.
Company news Real estate investment trust company, GPT Group
(ASX:GPT) announced its office, retail and logistics portfolios increased by $457 million or by 4 per cent from December 2017 to 30 June 2018. It comes after the properties were independently valued, with revaluations equating to 25 cents per security. The largest contributions to growth came from Australia Square, 1 Farrer Place, The MLC Centre and Westfield Penrith. Meantime, its office portfolio also saw an increase in rents, which bolstered its overall valuation. The group is due to report its financial results on 13 August 2018. Shares in GPT
(ASX:GPT) are trading 0.1 per cent higher at $5.11 at noon.
Graphite producer for lithium-ion batteries, Syrah Resources
(ASX:SYR) has advised its Balama production in Mozambique saw a 12 per cent dip in ore mined from the March to June quarter. Meantime its graphite produced rose 89 per cent, from quarter one to quarter two ending 30 June 2018. It dropped its 2018 graphite production target from 160,000 tonnes to 135,000 to 145,000 tonnes at the site. It also bumped up its operating costs from US$400/tonne to US$430 to US$450/tonne. And lastly it also pushed out the date for the Balama project to be cash flow positive, from mid 2018 to late 2018. Shares in Syrah Resources
(ASX:SYR) are trading 7.1 per cent lower at $2.90 at noon.
Best and worst performersThe best performing sector is Telco Services adding 1.00 per cent while the worst performing sector is Health Care, shedding 1.1 per cent.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is AMP
(ASX:AMP), rising 4.1 per cent to $3.444, followed by shares in G.U.D. Holdings Limited
(ASX:GUD) and Speedcast International Limited
(ASX:SDA).
The worst performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is Sandfire Resources Nl
(ASX:SFR), dropping 7.6 per cent to $7.54, followed by shares in Syrah Resources Limited
(ASX:SYR) and Independence Group Nl
(ASX:IGO).
Asian markets Japan’s Nikkei has lost 0.6 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has seen a minor lift of 0.04 per cent and the Shanghai Composite has gained 0.6 per cent.
Commodities and the dollar Gold is trading at $US1,222 an ounce.
One Australian dollar is buying 73.97 US cents.
CryptocurrenciesSome of the most traded cryptocurrencies are trading lower: Bitcoin has fallen 0.6 per cent to US$8,203 Ethereum has shed 0.6 per cent to US$466 and EOS has shed about 1 per cent to US$8.24.
