Despite positive leads and the Dow Jones index hitting record highs on Wall St the Australian share market has retreated at noon.
Most sectors are trading in the red with the miners falling after commodity prices weakened overnight.
The banks are also down despite ANZ Banking Group
(ASX:ANZ) reporting profit growth of 11 per cent and failing to impress investors.
The S&P/ASX 200 index is 25 points down at 5,464. On the futures market the SPI is 17 points lower.
Economic news
Manufacturing in Australia has shrunk in April, according to the Australian Industry Group’s PMI index. The decline of 3.1 points to 44.8, kept the index below the 50 point threshold that signals contraction in the industry.
In the housing sector April saw a modest gain of 0.3 per cent in home values as reported by RP data’s capital city index.
Company news
Cabcharge Australia Limited
(ASX:CAB) has advised that Reg Kermode, the company’s Founder, Chairman and CEO has passed away.
Mr Kermode resigned from the taxi booking company only a few days ago after suffering from an aggressive form of cancer. Shares in Cabcharge are trading down 0.26 per cent at $3.87.
Shares in Cardia Bioplastics Limited
(ASX:CNN) have jumped more than 30 per cent after inking another of a string of deals.
The company will supply 350,000 of their compostable garbage bags to the Palerang Council’s City to Soil waste diversion program in southern NSW. Shares in Cardia Bioplastics are trading up 33 per cent at $0.004.
Best and worst performers The best performing sector is health care gaining 39 points to 14,343. Shares in Sirtex Medical Limited
(ASX:SRX) have risen 1.59 per cent and trading at $15.99. Shares in Mesoblast limited
(ASX:MSB) and Acrux Limited
(ASX:ACR) are also stronger.
The worst performing sector is financials excluding real estate, falling 46 points to 7,227. Shares in Magellan Financial Group Limited
(ASX:MFG) have fallen 1.76 per cent, trading at $12.28. Shares in Australia and New Zealand Banking Group
(ASX:ANZ) and Lend Lease Group
(ASX:LLC) are also lower.
IPO ACORN CAP
(ASX:ACQ) started trading today. The small cap investor floated with an issue price of $1.00, opened at $0.95 and is currently trading at $0.94.
Gold and the dollar
Gold is trading at $US1,289 an ounce.
The Australian dollar is buying $US0.9293.
