The Australian share market is tipped to jump today and may hit a record high for 2013 after US stocks made strong gains on solid Chinese economic data and easing nerves about a possible military strike on Syria.
China economic news
China's industrial production rose in August at its fastest rate in 17 months. Industrial output in August rose 10.4 per cent from a year earlier, beating expectations of a 9.9 per cent increase. Retail sales rose 13.4 per cent in August from July's 13.2 per cent. That followed better-than-expected export data on Monday, suggesting the world's second-biggest economy is stabilizing.
That better-than-expected China data pushed the Australian dollar to a three month high. At 7:30AM the Aussie was buying $US93.15 cents, 59.22 Pence Sterling, 93.51 Yen and 70.23 Euro cents.
Figures
Wall Street had a stellar session overnight with the Nasdaq hitting its highest point since September 2000: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 128 points to close at 15,191, the S&P 500 added 12 points to close at 1,684 and the NASDAQ jumped 23 points to close at 3,729.
European markets also got a boost from that news from China: London’s FTSE lifted by 53 points, Paris gained 76 points and Frankfurt surged by 170 points.
Asian markets rallied on the China story: Tokyo’s Nikkei added 218 points, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 226 points, and China’s Shanghai Composite gained 25 points.
The Australian share market finished yesterday’s trading session 0.4 per cent up, buoyed by solid economic news from China to trade up around its highest levels of the year. The S&P/ASX 200 index closed 20 points up to finish at 5,201. On the futures market the SPI is 29 points higher.
Economic news
Westpac Bank will release its consumer confidence survey for September and the Australian Bureau of Statistics will put out its lending finance data for July.
Company news
Westfield Group
(ASX:WDC) and Westfield Retail Trust
(ASX:WRT) have sold their stakes in the $740 million Karrinyup Shopping Centre in Perth to superannuation fund UniSuper, according to media reports. Westfield exited the property after being cleared by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to take full control of the asset. Shares in Westfield Group dropped 0.37 per cent to $10.65.
Telstra Corporation Limited
(ASX:TLS) has reportedly begun trials of new mobile technology that is alleged to be capable of providing download speeds as much as nine times faster than the Coalition’s NBN plan would deliver, according to media reports. Telstra’s plans reportedly involve using a technology called “carrier aggregation” aimed at delivering peak mobile download speeds of up to 450 mega bits per second. Shares in Telstra lifted 0.21 per cent to $4.84.
Ex-dividend
Commodities
Gold is down $22.70 to $US1,364 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver is down $0.70 to $23.02 for December. Copper is down $0.02 at $3.26 a pound. Oil is down $2.13 at US$107.39 a barrel for October light crude in New York.
