The Australian share market rose sharply at the open, and has continued to push higher in the first two hours of trade and was tracking 0.85 per cent up at 1.20pm.
Our local bourse proved its resilience and defied overall mixed leads from Wall Street, with the Dow Jones and the S&P closing lower, while the tech heavy Nasdaq notched another record high and is now almost 20 percent up year-to-date.
Most of the sectors on the ASX are trading higher, with Consumer Staples, Industrials, Healthcare and Reits all trading over 1 per cent higher. The only sector bucking the upward trend is Telcos, which are trading lower, with small losses in Telstra
(ASX:TLS) and Vocus Group
(ASX:VOC).
The S&P/ASX 200 index is 48 points up at 5,736.
On the futures market the SPI is 50 points higher.
Asian markets Japan’s Nikkei has lost 0.1 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has added 0.1 per cent and the Shanghai Composite has fallen 0.3 per cent.
To company news Wesfarmers
(ASX:WES) has reported its yearly production for Curragh and Bengalla operations rose for the period ending 30 June 2017. The Australian conglomerate, says its coal production at Curragh for the quarter was 3.2 per cent lower than the previous quarter. Meantime, for its Bengalla site, its share of coal production rose 25.5 per cent compared to the previous quarter. Shares in Wesfarmers
(ASX:WES) are trading up 0.17 per cent at $40.32.
Macmahon Holdings
(ASX:MAH) has extended the date for satisfying the AMNT transaction conditions to 24 July 2017. The civil engineering company previously advised it intends to sell a cornerstone stake in the company, to Indonesia's PT Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara (AMNT). The transaction remains subject to the satisfaction of two remaining conditions, being the lender consent and the Indonesian legal opinion conditions. Shares in Macmahon Holdings
(ASX:MAH) are trading down 2.86 per cent at $0.17.
To the best and worst performersThe best performing sector is HealthCare, gaining 1.65 per cent to 22,866. Shares in Mayne Pharma Group Limited
(ASX:MYX) have risen 2.93 per cent and trading at 0.97. Shares in CSL Limited
(ASX:CSL) and Ansell Limited
(ASX:ANN) are also stronger.
The worst performing sector is Telcos, falling 0.2 per cent to 1,457. Shares in Speedcast International Limited
(ASX:SDA) have fallen 3.76 per cent, trading at $3.58. Shares in TPG Telecom Limited
(ASX:TPM) and Vocus Group Limited
(ASX:VOC) are also lower.
Commodities and the dollarGold is trading at $US1,255 an ounce and one Australian dollar is buying 79.30 US cents.
