The Australian share market looks to back to pull back from a fresh 15-month high hit yesterday after global markets retreated amid gloomy global growth forecasts from The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Figures
Wall Street dropped on Tuesday ahead of the third quarter reporting season: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 110 points to close at 13,474, the S&P500 lost 14 points to close at 1,441 and the Nasdaq lost 47 points to close at 3,065.
European markets also fell on Tuesday: London’s FTSE lost 31 points, Paris lost 24 points and Frankfurt lost 57 points.
Asian markets ended mixed on Tuesday: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 113 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 94 and China’s Shanghai Composite added 41 points.
The Australian share market advanced 0.5 per cent on Tuesday, breaking through the 4,500 level for the first time in more than a year: The S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 23 points to end at 4,505. On the futures market the SPI is 34 points lower.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar at 8:00AM was buying $US1.02 cents, 63.8 Pence Sterling, 79.9 Yen and 79.26 Euro cents.
Economic news due out today Westpac Banking Corporation
(ASX:WBC)-Melbourne Institute: Survey of Consumer Sentiment
Company news Australia’s corporate regulator is understood to be investigating ASX Limited
(ASX:ASX) after the exchange operator experienced its second significant technical glitch in a year, yesterday afternoon. A spokesperson from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission has told Fairfax Media it will review all aspects of the outage that prevented ASX from publishing company announcements from midday to the close to trade on yesterday. Shares in ASX firmed 0.54 per cent on Tuesday, ending the session at $29.96.
Ardent Leisure Group
(ASX:AAD) has completed its purchase of Fenix Fitness Clubs for $61 million one month after announcing the deal. The acquisition will enable the leisure and entertainment business to expand its gym business through adding to its Goodlife fitness centre business, with Fenix owning and operating eleven fitness clubs in Victoria and Queensland. Shares in Ardent Leisure Group rose 0.75 per cent on Tuesday, finishing the session at $1.35.
Ex dividends today
TPG Telecom Limited
(ASX:TPM) with a 2.75 cent fully franked dividend
Ex dividends tomorrow
K & S Corporation Limited
(ASX:KSC) with a 6 cent fully franked dividend
United Overseas Australia Limited
(ASX:UOS) with a 0.5 cent unfranked dividend
Commodities
Gold is down $10.70 to $US1,765 an ounce for the December contract on Comex.
Silver is down $0.03 to $33.98 for December.
Copper is up $0.002 at $3.72 a pound.
Oil is up $2.90 at $US92.23 a barrel for November light crude in New York.
