Business Confidence Drops Marginally in June

Mayank Mehta, Chandrasekhar Atreya and Sanjay Barot
13 Jul, 2010
New York City

Stocks in Australia traded lower marginally. Business confidence fell at a slower rate in June after retail and wholesale companies reported improving sentiments. Heavy rainfall brings down output of uranium oxide for Energy Resources.Clinuvel says its drug for EPP had a successful clinical trial.

[R]6:00 PM Sydney, Australia – Stocks in Australia traded lower marginally. Business confidence fell at a slower rate in June after retail and wholesale companies reported improving sentiments. Heavy rainfall brings down output of uranium oxide for Energy Resources. Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals says its drug for EPP had a successful clinical trial.[/R]

Stocks in Australia declined steadily and traded lower. The ASX 200 Index lost 29.60 points or 0.67% to close at 4,380.30 in Sydney today.

The business confidence in Australia was marginally down in June after falling the previous three months, after retail and wholesale companies reported improved sentiment.

The business confidence index dropped to 4 in June from 5 in May, according to a National Australia Bank Ltd survey of more than 500 companies was released in Sydney today. The survey was conducted between June 24 and June 30.

Energy Resources of Australia Ltd, the uranium producer which operates the Ranger mine some 260 kilometers east of Darwin in the Northern Territory, said the second quarter output fell 44% due to heavy rains that increased instability in a pit wall reducing access to high-grade ores.

Uranium oxide production dropped to 1.828 million pounds or 829 tons, in the quarter ended June 30 from 3.266 million tons a year earlier. Full year output is expected to be between 4,300 tons to 4,700 tons due to reduced access to high grade ore, the company said in a statement from Darwin today.

Durban-based Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd will push for full takeover of Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd after Australia’s largest drug distributor said it may also consider offers for parts of its business.

Aspen’s intentions are to buy all of Sigma. We are waiting for our due diligence exercise to be completely finalized and then it will be up to Sigma to take our offer to shareholders and for the board to reassess the bid, said Roshni Gajjar, Aspen’s Investor Relations Manager in a telephonic interview today from Durban.

National Australia Bank Ltd is planning to issue as much as 300 million pounds of capital to bolster the reserves of its Clydesdale Bank division in the U.K.

Erythropoietic protoporphyria is a rare disease that makes people sensitive to sunlight, making them experience itching, burning and swelling of the skin when exposed. Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals Ltd, an Australian drug company, said that a Phase III clinical trial showed that a drug of the company provided relief from the disease.

A 12-month study in eight countries showed that Scenesse significantly reduced the pain and discomfort experienced by participants, all of whom suffered from Erythropoietic protoporphyria, a mild form of porphyria, the Melbourne-based company said in a statement today.