Australian Unemployment at 5.3%

Darlington Musarurwa
08 Apr, 2010
New York City

Australia

[R]3:00 AM New York, 7:00 PM Sydney - Australia’s employment increased 0.2% in March and unemployment stayed at 5.3% and full-time employment advanced 30,100 to 7.691 million offset by a fall in part-time employment by 10,600 to 3.297 million.[/R]

The benchmark stock index dropped 0.5% in Australia despite commodities prices closing higher in international markets.

Losses were however pared after the country’s employment rose in March, according to a government report, and gold prices rose to a four-month high on concern over the Greece debt crisis.

Gold for April delivery rose 1.5% to $1,152.30 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In Sydney trading ASX 200 Index declined 0.5% or 23 to 4,937.90.

Of the ASX 200 index stocks, 73 rose, 108 fell, and 19 were unchanged. Eldorado Gold- CDI led gainers in the index stocks with a gain of 7.4%.

Other resource stocks rose as well. Lihir Gold edged up 2.5% to A$3.99 and Avoca Resources advanced 2.3% to A$2.19.

The Australian dollar rose 0.1% to 92.73 U.S. cents.

Employment Rises 0.2% in March

Australian Bureau of Statistics reported today that the country’s employment rose 0.2% from the previous month and gained 2.1% from a year ago to 10.9 million in March.

Full-time employment advanced 30,100 to 7.691 million offset by a fall in part-time employment by 10,600 to 3.297 million.

Unemployment gained 0.7% to 619,100, while the number of persons looking for full-time work decreased 3,800 to 442,000 and the number of persons looking for part-time work increased 8,000 to 177,100.

However, the unemployment rate remained at 5.3%.

Aggregate monthly hours worked decreased 10.0 million hours or 0.6% to 1,541.2 million hours.

Woolworths to Dismantle Exclusive Telstra Deal

Woolworths said today it has decided to dismantle a A$300 million exclusive deal with Telstra for telecommunications and Internet services for its retail business.

The company will seek individual suppliers for its communications needs such as fixed-voice, data, mobile telephony, networking and internet.

Chief information officer Dan Beecham said, “This approach will enable us to better leverage Woolworths’ internal capabilities and combine them with the expertise of individual service providers. It will also provide us with greater scalability of services and deliver cost savings for our business.”

ASX Movers

Infigen Energy led decliners in the S&P ASX 200 index with a loss of 4.6% followed by losses in Linc Energy Ltd of 4.0%, in Mirvac Group of 3.3%, in Energy World Corporation Limited 3.1% and in Aquarius Platinum Limited 3.0%.

Macmahon Holdings Limited led gainers in the S&P ASX 200 index with a rise of 6.3% followed by gains in Hastings Diversified Utilities Fund 6.1%, in Emeco Holdings Limited of 4.0% and in Abacus Property Group of 3.8%.

Other Movers

Australian Vintage Limited, the wine maker plunged 11.1% to A$0.24.

Macarthur Coal Limited rose 0.5% to A$14.39 after Peabody Energy Corp. has asked Australia''s takeovers panel to force its takeover target, Macarthur Coal Limited, to defer an April 12 vote on a plan to acquire smaller rival Gloucester Coal.

Telstra Corporation Limited added 1.6% to A$3.07.