Outlook: Aus shares set for horror 2% drop

US stocks entered correction territory on Friday following their worst losses in four years on the back of China worries. Mixed signals from the US Federal Reserve regarding a potential interest rate rise in September and sinking oil prices are also adding to investor concern. 

 

Huge falls in Europe for the same reasons are all pointing to a big sell off in the Australian market today with some experts predicting the ASX could fall by over 2 per cent. 

 

Markets

Wall Street closed sharply lower on Friday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 3 per cent to close at 16,460, the S&P 500 lost 3 per cent to close at 1,971 and the NASDAQ lost 3.5 per cent to close at 4,706.

 

European markets also closed with big losses: London’s FTSE shed 2.8 per cent, Paris lost 3.2 per cent and Frankfurt slipped nearly 3 per cent.

 

Asian markets lower as well: Tokyo’s Nikkei lost nearly 3 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dipped 1.5 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite retreated 4.3 per cent. 

 

The Australian share market closed lower on Friday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 74 points down to finish at 5,215 to be 142 points down on the week. On the futures market the SPI is down a whopping 110 points. 

 

Currencies

The Australian Dollar at 7:20AM was buying 73.09 US cents, 46.60 Pence Sterling, 89.11 Yen and 64.29 Euro cents.           
                                   
iiNet Limited (ASX:IIN) says the Federal Court has approved the Scheme of Arrangement with TPG Telecom Limited (ASX:TPM). Once the papers are lodged with ASIC later today then iiNet will become a wholly owned subsidiary of TPG. Shares in iiNet closed flat at $9.53 and is likely to cease trading today. 

 

Phileo Australia (ASX:PHI) says that DTZ has confirmed value of the Rocklea Homemaker Centre at Bendigo at $27.5 million above the carrying value of $22.2 million. The gain is not expected to impact cash flow or tax liability. Shares in Phileo closed steady at $9.15.

 

To ex-dividends: 7 companies are going ex-dividend today: They are the Australian Governance Master Index Fund (ASX:AQF), Bell Financial Group (ASX:BFG), Energy Action Ltd (ASX:EAX) Flagship Investments (ASX:FSI), ITL Limited (ASX:ITD) Mortgage Choice Ltd (ASX:MOC) and Reckon Limited (ASX:RKN).

 

Finally to Commodities Gold has jumped $6.40 to $1160 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver has slipped 20 cents to $15.37 for September. Copper is down 2 cents to $2.30 a pound. Oil has shed $0.87 to $40.45 a barrel for September light crude in New York.