The Australian share market looks to be eyeing gains this morning following positive offshore leads and ahead of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) monthly interest rate decision, with the RBA tipped to keep the cash rate steady at 3.5 per cent.
Figures
Wall Street started Monday stronger despite closing off the day’s highs: The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 21 points to close at 13,118, the S&P500 added 3 points to close at 1,394 and the Nasdaq added 22 points to close at 2,990.
European markets lifted for the first session of the week: London’s FTSE added 21 points, Paris added 27 points and Frankfurt added 53 points.
Asian markets rose on Monday: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 333 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei added 171 and China’s Shanghai Composite added 22 points.
Buoyed by a better than expected US jobs report the Australian share market jumped more than 1 per cent on Monday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index advanced 51 points to finish at 4,273. On the futures market the SPI is 12 points higher.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar at 7:15AM was buying $US1.056 cents, 67.74Pence Sterling, 82.66 Yen and 85.24 Euro cents.
Economic news due out today
Reserve Bank of Australia: August interest rate decision
Australian Industry Group-Housing Industry Association: Performance of construction index for July
Stocks to watch AngloGold Ashanti Limited
(ASX:AGG) says it has beaten its operating guidance and confirmed its growth projects are on schedule. The gold miner says it improved on cost and production guidance in the second quarter and kept its four growth projects on track and on budget despite challenging operating conditions in the global gold sector. Shares in AngloGold Ashanti closed steady at $6.35 before the announcement was made on Monday.
Medusa Mining Limited
(ASX:MML) has announced another upgrade to resources at the Co-O gold mine in the Philippines. The gold focussed company says indicated resources have now risen 16 per cent and total resources have risen 3 per cent. Medusa believes the results demonstrate the excellent potential to add more resources in future years. Shares in Medusa Mining rose 2.01 per cent to close at $5.07 before the announcement was made on Monday.
Commodities
Gold is up $6.90 to $US1,610 an ounce for the December contract on Comex.
Silver is up $0.06 to $27.86 for September.
Copper is up $0.02 at $3.38 a pound.
Oil is up $0.80 at $US92.20 a barrel for September light crude in New York.
