The Australian share market looks set to sag following a Wall street retreat on the back of negative aluminium demand forecasts from US giant Alcoa.
FiguresWall Street closed lower yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 129 points to close at 13,345, the S&P500 lost 9 to close at 1,433 points and the Nasdaq lost 13 points, closing at 3,052.
European markets also closed down: London’s FTSE lost 34 points, Paris dropped 17 and Frankfurt lost 29 points.
Asian markets closed mixed: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 18 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei is down by 173 while China’s Shanghai Composite added 5 points.
The Australian share market closed lower yesterday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 15 points down to finish at 4,491. On the futures market the SPI is 25 points lower.
CurrenciesThe Australian Dollar at 8:10AM was buying $US1.02 cents, 63.93 Pence Sterling, 79.97 Yen and 79.51 Euro cents.
Economic newsDue out today from the Australian Bureau of Statisticsis Labour force employment data for September.
Company news Sandfire Resources NL
(ASX:SFR) has announced the first successful mining of Stoping ore from its 100 per cent owned DeGrussa Copper-Gold project in Western Australia. The ore, with a 5.1 per cent average copper grade, comes in ahead of schedule at over 130 thousand tonnes, following the first copper concentrate production from the site just last week. CEO Karl Simich says the project is well on target to ramp up production to its targeted annual rate of 77 thousand tonnes. Shares in Sandfire Resources closed 1.41 per cent lower yesterday at $8.42
Harvey Norman Holdings Limited
(ASX:HVN) chief Gerald Harvey is reportedly considering a further $100 million joint venture investment in transportable accommodation units for miners in Chinchilla and Gladstone in Queensland. According to The Australian, Harvey Norman has already spent $60 million on mining accommodation infrastructure despite concerns that the mining boom is closer to its end than its beginning. Mr Harvey says that mining accommodation is a specialised area with heaps of demand, and he is not alone in pursuing it. Shares in Harvey Norman closed 0.50 per centlower yesterday at $2.01
Ex-dividendsK & 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
CommoditiesGold is down $1.00 to $US1,764 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver is down $0.06 to $34.02 for December. Copper is also down, dropping $0.003 to $3.72 a pound. Oil is down $1.14 at US$91.25 a barrel for November light crude in New York.
