Strong manufacturing data out of Asia, Europe and the US saw the Australian share market jump higher at open ahead of the RBA’s interest rate call this afternoon. Local shares are 1.3 per cent higher at the moment with all major sectors up, led by strong gains in energy stocks. With gold seeing a strong early rise, local gold miners are also performing well so far today.
The S&P/ASX 200 index is 60 points up at 4,770. On the futures market the SPI is 45 points higher.
Company news
QBE Insurance Group Limited
(ASX:QBE) shares have firmed 2.48 per cent in early trade after the group reaffirmed its commitment to a $250 million savings drive.
BC Iron Limited
(ASX:BCI) shares have edged up 0.31 per cent after the iron ore miner posted record annual production at its Nullagine iron ore joint venture and predicting output will increase by 20 per cent in fiscal 2014.
Brambles Limited
(ASX:BXB) shares have lifted 1.05 per cent after the announcement of plans to demerge its underperforming data management business Recall.
Decmil Group Limited
(ASX:DCG) shares have spiked 9.28 per cent after the civil engineering company announced the awarding of a $137 million contract by the commonwealth government for the construction of an accommodation facility in PNG.
Best and worst performers All the major sectors are higher. The best performing sector is Energy gaining 349 points to 12,651. Shares in Linc Energy Limited
(ASX:LNC) have risen 5.59 per cent and trading at $0.85. Shares in Santos Limited
(ASX:STO) and Origin Energy Limited
(ASX:ORG) are also stronger.
The sector with the fewest gains is Telco services, adding 10 points to 1,622. Shares in Singapore Telecommunications Limited
(ASX:SGT) have risen 0.31 per cent, trading at $3.20. Shares in Telstra Corporation Limited
(ASX:TLS) and TPG Telecom Limited
(ASX:TPM) are also slightly higher at midday.
IPOs GPS Alliance Holdings Limited
(ASX:GPS) started trading today. The real estate company floated with an issue price of $0.20, opened at $0.18 and is currently trading at $0.20. We’ll take a look at its debut performance in this afternoon’s market wrap.
Gold and the dollar
Gold is trading at $US1,256 an ounce and the Australian dollar is buying $US0.9234.
