The Australian share market is expected to open lower this morning, after growing concern about the financial stability of the Eurozone sent US stocks falling last week.
Figures On Friday the Dow Jones Industrial Average, closed 115 points lower at 11,935, S&P500 lost 15 points to close at 1,268 and the NASDAQ lost 34 points to close at 2,653.
European stocks ended the week mixed. London was up 23, Paris lost 3 points and Frankfurt was 28 points lower.
To Asian markets and stocks were higher: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 413, Tokyo’s Nikkei was up 82 and China’s Shanghai Composite gained 58 points.
On Friday the Australian share market ended the week higher. The S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 8 points to close at 4,508. While on the futures market the SPI is currently down 41points.
Turning to currencies and the Australian Dollar at 8.20AM was buying $1.0485 US cents, 65.69 Pence Sterling, 84.38 Yen and 73.92 Euro cents.
Company newsOn Friday shares in Centro Properties Group
(ASX:CNP) were down 2.44 per cent at $0.04. The board of the company will today find out if it should be held accountable for signing off on financial reports that did not disclose billions of dollars of short-term debt. In a Federal Court ruling today, the anticipated landmark judgement is expected to have repercussions for company directors around the country. In the second half of last year, Centro Properties Group
(ASX:CNP) generated a net profit of $790.3 million.
At the end of last week shares in Beach Energy Limited
(ASX:BPT) were down 1.14 per cent at $0.87. The oil and gas producer has generated $25 million in cash after selling all shares in junior miner Ramelius Resources. The company says it sold about 20 million shares over the past few weeks. In the second half of last year, Beach Energy Limited
(ASX:BPT) reported a net loss of $87.5 million.
Ex-dividendsNo companies are going ex-dividend today, but tomorrow we can expect Aberdeen Leaders
(ASX:ALR) to issue a fully-franked dividend of $0.04.
Commodities Gold is down $19.60 to $US1,500 an ounce for the August contract on Comex, silver is down $0.36 to $34.64 for July and copper is up $0.06 at $4.10 a pound. Oil is up $0.14 at $91.16 a barrel for July light crude in New York.
