Defying strong offshore leads and a week of gains from Wall Street, the Australian share market dropped at open as increasing fears of a Greek debt default stung sentiment. Falls across the board have sunk the local bourse more than 1.7 per cent at noon, led by steep declines from the financial stocks.
The S&P/ASX200 index has dropped 65 points and is 4,084. On the futures market the SPI is down 58 points.
Economic news
Merchandise imports increased 4 per cent last month. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics seasonally adjusted merchandise imports increased by $733 million to $20.17 billion in August. The lift was led by an 11 per cent rise in fuel imports and a 4 per cent rise in consumption goods imports.
Company news
Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Co. Limited (ASX:SOL) has unveiled plans to buy all the shares that it does not already own in its small enterprise investment fund, ASX-listed Souls Private Equity Limited (ASX:SOE). The company has offered Souls Private Equity 16.3 cents per share, giving it a value of around $98 million. Executive director Peter Robinson said in the announcement that Souls Private Equity’s current share price did not reflect the underlying value and investors appear to have taken note with the stock today surging more than 130 per cent. Shares in Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Co. have lost 0.33 per cent and are trading at $12.05.
Lend Lease Group (ASX:LLC) has been recognised on the Dow Jones' Sustainability Index, scoring a perfect mark across the real estate sector for the environmental policy and management category. The property developer improved on its score from last year, this year achieving 80 per cent compared to the average industry result of 45 per cent. Lend Lease says the final score reflected a significant improvement in the group's environmental performance and sustainable practice. Shares in Lend Lease have slipped 2.77 per cent and are trading at $7.36.
Best and worst performers
The sector with the smallest losses is Telco Services, flat at 1,050. Shares in Stratatel have lifted 12.5 per cent and trading at $0.036. Shares in iiNet are higher while shares in Enerji are steady. The worst performing sector is Financials, Excluding Real Estate Investment Trusts, retreating 102 points to 4,276. Shares in Challenger have shed 5.12 per cent and trading at $4.45. Shares in Macquarie Group and IOOF Holdings are also lower.
New Zealand
The NZSX50 has fallen 17 points. Taking a look at the top four stocks by turnover, Fletcher Building is at the top of the list with stock down 1.32 per cent at $7.49 followed by Telecom Corporation of New Zealand, Westpac and The Warehouse Group.
Gold and the dollar
Gold is trading at $US1,820 an ounce. The Australian dollar is buying $US1.0252 cents.
