Outlook: Aus shares to extend gains

Market Reports

The Australian share market is tipped to extend its gains slightly in early trade after US stocks continued their blistering rise as Fed vice chairwoman Janet Yellen defended the central bank’s stance on stimulus.
 
Ms Yellen said in a hearing on her nomination before the Senate Banking Committee that there are dangers to ending the central bank's $US85 billion-a-month bond-buying program too soon.

Currencies
 
That was music to investors ears and also pushed the greenback higher against major currencies including the Australian dollar. At 8:20AM the Aussie was buying $US93.25 cents, 58.04 Pence Sterling, 93.23 Yen and 69.3 Euro cents.

Figures

Wall Street continued to climb: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 55 points to close at 15,876, the S&P 500 added 9 points to close at 1,791 and the NASDAQ lifted 7 points to close at 3,973.
 
European markets gained as third-quarter gross domestic product in the eurozone expanded 0.1 per cent from the previous quarter. London’s FTSE jumped by 36 points, Paris added 44 points and Frankfurt surged by 95 points.
 
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average soared over 2 per cent to nearly a six-month high as third-quarter Japanese GDP grew at an annualized rate of 1.9 per cent, topping expectations of 1.7 per cent. Tokyo’s Nikkei added 309 points, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lifted by 185 points, and China’s Shanghai Composite gained 13 points.
 
The Australian share market closed just off session highs yesterday, as investors cheered dovish comments from US Federal Reserve vice chair Janet Yellen.  The S&P/ASX 200 index closed 36 points up to finish at 5,355. On the futures market the SPI is 8 points higher. 
 
Company news
 
Lend Lease Group (ASX:LLC) will hold its annual general meeting today. The developer recently announced it boosted its annual net profit by 10 per cent on the back of revenue gains from its Barangaroo hotel and casino development in Sydney. Shares in Lend Lease lifted 1.38 per cent yesterday to close at $11.01.
 
Perseus Mining Limited (ASX:PRU) will also hold its annual general meeting today. The update comes after the dual-listed company posted a slight decline in production during the first quarter of its 2014 financial year, owing to lower material movements and processing at its mine in Ghana. Shares in Perseus Mining lifted 5.56 per cent yesterday to close at 38 cents.
 
Commodities

Gold is up $17.90 to $US1,286 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver is up $0.28 to $20.72 for December. Copper is flat at $3.16 a pound. Oil is down $0.12 at US$93.76 a barrel for December light crude in New York.

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