Australia Stocks Higher; June Home Loans Fall

Chandrasekhar Atreya
09 Aug, 2010
New York City

Stocks in Australia gained after a rally in the resource sector helped the index close higher. Aston completes book build for its initial public offering. Jobs placement ads rise in July. Home loan approvals fell in June.

[R]6:00 PM Sydney, Australia – Stocks in Australia gained after a rally in the resource sector helped the index close higher. Aston completes book build for its initial public offering. Jobs placement ads rise in July. Home loan approvals fell in June.[/R]

The stocks climbed further during the day to close higher after investors rallied behind National Australia Bank’s likely acquisition of Axa Asia Pacific.

The ASX 200 Index gained 0.63% or 28.80 to close at 4,594.90 in Sydney.

The number of mergers and acquisitions completed in Australia this year is less than half that of last year. Earlier in June Reuters Thomson data showed that mergers involving Australian firms fell nearly 31% in the first half of 2010 from a year earlier to A$63.4 billion.

Money managers cut their net short positions in natural gas futures by more than 10,500 contracts for the week ended August 3, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Job advertisements rose for the third straight month in July as Australia’s accelerating economy prompted companies to seek more workers, even as housing finance in the country eased as higher interest rates led to the drop.

Home-loan approvals fell in June, after gaining in May, according to data released by the Statistics Bureau. The number of loans given to build or buy houses and apartments dropped 3.9% in June to 46,620 from May, when they rose a revised 3%, the bureau said in Sydney today.

Wolseley Private Equity bought NSW-based civil engineering group Abergeldie, its second acquisition in as many months.

Aston Resources Ltd said it has completed the book building process for an initial share offering of A$400 million, according to a statement from the company on Friday.

Itochu Corp, a Japanese trading company, agreed to buy 2.75% stake in Aston Resources Pty Ltd for A$33 million. This acquisition will give Itochu exclusive negotiation rights to acquire a stake in the Australian resource company’s Maules Creek coal project and market the commodity, according to details on the trader’s Web site.

Stanbroke Pastoral Company claims an overflow from storage structures last year on the Xstrata-owned Ernest Henry cooper-gold mine near Cloncurry, in northwest Queensland, dumped pollutants in two creeks running through its adjacent paddocks.

A statement of claim lodged in the Brisbane Supreme Court Registry today alleges that the spill contained high levels of chemicals and heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, copper, cobalt and chloride. The company owners claim they were not immediately notified about the outflow and that they have now lost substantial income by not able to use the paddocks.

Resources News

Chalice Gold plans to raise A$12.6 million for the development of the Zara gold project in Eritrea, East Africa.

Artemis Resources Ltd said its first drilled hole at its Mt Clement project in Western Australia found high-grade gold mineralization. The company said drilling results included 5.23 grams of gold per ton from 14 to 20 meters and 8.81 grams from 106 to 112 meters.

“Successful intercept proves that high-grade gold mineralization does continue strongly at depth,” said the company to the stock exchange today.

Elk Petroleum is in trading halt pending an announcement with respect to the release of reserves and economics report.

Exco Resources placed in trading halt pending an announcement on funding arrangements for its Cloncurry copper project in northwest Queensland.

Hillgrove Resources will sell its surplus SAG mill to Conquest Mining for A$6.95 million.

Carnegie Wave Energy granted a wave energy license from the NSW government for a potential wave energy project south of Sydney.

Power and gas project developer Energy World Corp plans to list its stock on the over-the-counter market for non-U.S. firms, to be followed by a secondary listing in Hong Kong.

Gainers & Losers

Elders Ltd led the gainers in the index with a gain of 15.84% to A$0.585 followed by Lynas Corp Ltd 10.47% to A$0.95 and White Energy Company Ltd 6.63% to A$3.7.

Mirabela Nickel Ltd led the losers with a decline of 5.45% to A$1.995 followed by Medusa Mining Ltd 3.75% to A$3.85 and Isoft Group Ltd 3.33% to A$0.145.