The Aussie sharemarket slipped 0.16 per cent after a sharp dip at lunch, dragged down by QBE Insurance’s share price plummet.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index lost 6.5 points to finish at 4,181. On the futures market, the SPI is 18 points lower.
Economic news
China’s inflation rate slowed for the fifth month in a row in December to 4.1 per cent, compared with 4.2 per cent in November. The National Bureau of Statistics says for the whole of 2011, inflation stood at 5.4 per cent, above the government’s full-year target of four per cent.
Company news
QBE Insurance Limited
(ASX:QBE) shares hit an eight-year low today. The insurer is expecting rough results for 2011 after assessing the potential impact of recent natural disasters on its figures. It has cut its insurance profit margin from a minimum of 11 per cent to between seven per cent and 7.5 per cent. Its dividend will be down from 66 cents a share last year to 25 cents a share in 2011. Shares in QBE closed 13 per cent lower at $11.35.
Rio Tinto Limited
(ASX:RIO) has completed the acquisition of Hathor Exploration. It is anticipated that the Hathor common shares will be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange effective at the close of business on January 12. Rio closed the day 0.84 per cent higher, at $64.73.
Iluka Resources Limited
(ASX:ILU) has recorded a 53 per cent rise in revenue for the last quarter of 2011. The mineral sands producer says quarterly revenue from mineral sands sales came in at $434 million in the three months to the end of December, compared with $283 million the year before.
Ivanhoe Australia Limited
(ASX:IVA) (TSX:IVA) (NYSE:IVA) has received a $30.1 million distribution from Exco Resources Limited. The company says the distribution follows the finalisation of the sale of Exco’s Cloncurry Copper Project to Xstrata.
Noni B Limited
(ASX:NBL) shares surged 35 per cent this morning after the women’s clothing retailer forecast its first half net profit to grow by up to 60 per cent, to deliver a net profit of between $2.1 million and $2.4 million in the first half of fiscal 2012.
Cape Lambert Resources Limited
(ASX:CFE) may receive $72.2 million if the proposed $338 million takeover of African Iron Limited
(ASX:AKI) by South African mining group Exxaro Resources (PINK:EXXAF) goes ahead, based on its stake in African Iron. That’s an impressive return of about 209 per cent on its investment.
Best and worst performers
Real estate investment trusts was up 10 points to 825.5. The worst performing sector was telcos, down 13 points, closing at 1,121.7.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX200 was White Energy, up 13.41 per cent at 46 cents. Shares in Energy Resources of Australia and Macquarie Atlas also finished stronger today.
The worst performing stock was QBE, as we saw earlier, followed by Primary Health Care and Bathurst Resources.
Commodities
The price of gold is $US1,644.72 an ounce and Light crude is up 40 cents to US$101.27 a barrel.
