The Australian rose at the open, despite Wall Street closing in the red as the Turkish lira fell 14 per cent and a hit a record low.
Nevertheless, the ASX200 continued to gain momentum until 11.30am, before levelling off with most of the sectors trading higher and noon.
The S&P/ASX 200 index is 0.8 per cent higher or 49 points higher at 6,302. On the futures market the SPI is 46 points higher.
About six sectors are seeing gains of about 1 per cent or more, with energy, staples and financial leading.
It comes as we saw Whitehaven Coal
(ASX:WHC) rise over 6.8 per cent on their results, and Praemium
(ASX:PPS) rise 7.1 per cent after they reported results yesterday.
Goldman Sachs downgraded Bendigo and Adelaide Bank
(ASX:BEN) from a buy to a neutral and it’s trading over 2 per cent lower as a result today.
Company news Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) Propertylink Group
(ASX:PLG) announced its profit after tax (attributable to shareholders) galloped 61 per cent higher in the financial year ending 30 June 2018, compared to the same time last year. It also delivered distributable earnings of 9.25 cents per security, exceeding its guidance. The group says on the back the strong financial results, it’s positioned for growth in FY19. Shares in Propertylink
(ASX:PLG) are trading 0.5 per cent higher at $1.03.
Fleet management and leasing company, SG Fleet Group
(ASX:SGF) announced its net profit after (NPAT) tax climbed about 14 per cent on the 2017 financial year, to $68 million in FY18, on the back of its products and service growth, coupled with a bigger contribution from its UK and NZ businesses. It also scaled up its total dividends by almost 12 per cent, to a total dividend of 18.738 cents per share. Shares in SG Fleet Group
(ASX:SGF) are trading 0.9 per cent lower at $3.47.
Property investment manager, Centuria Capital Group
(ASX:CNI) announced their FY18 results with their statutory net profit after tax soaring about 220 per cent on FY17 (to $54.8 million), while its assets under management rose about 30per cent to $4.9 billion. And in more good news for Centuria it bolstered its distribution per security by over 9 per cent, taking the distribution to 8.2 cents per security. To watch the
CEO deliver the results in an interview, flick over to our website, or you can watch
full result presentation, also on our website. Centuria Capital Group
(ASX:CNI) shares are trading flat at $1.40.
Best and worst performersThe best performing sector is energy adding 1.4 per cent, while the worst performing sector is healthcare, shedding 0.5 per cent.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is Whitehaven Coal
(ASX:WHC), rising 6.8 per cent to $5.62, followed by shares in Nufarm
(ASX:NUF) and Afterpay Touch Group
(ASX:APT).
The worst performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is Domino's Pizza Enterprises
(ASX:DMP), dropping 9.6 per cent to $47.41, followed by shares in Challenger Limited
(ASX:CGF) and Cochlear
(ASX:COH).
Asian markets Japan’s Nikkei has added 1.2 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has lost 0.4 per cent and the Shanghai Composite has lost 0.4 per cent.
Commodities and the dollar Gold is trading at $US1,195 an ounce.
Iron ore price fell 0.3 per cent to US$68.51.
Iron ore futures are pointing to a rise of 0.4 per cent.
One Australian dollar is buying 72.79 US cents.
CryptocurrenciesSome of the most traded cryptocurrencies are trading lower. Bitcoin has fallen 3.5 per cent to US$6,125, Ethereum has fallen about 18 per cent to US$262 and has EOS has lost about 14 per cent to US$4.34.
