Weekly Gain of 4% in Sydney

Chandrasekhar Atreya
03 Sep, 2010
New York City

Stocks in Australia rallied to push the weekly gain of 4%. New vehicles sales rose 12.1% in August. Qantas loses it appeal against a Federal Court ruling. Newcastle port has longer waiting list of ships to be loaded.

[R]6:00 PM Sydney, Australia – Stocks in Australia rallied to push the weekly gain of 4%. New vehicles sales rose 12.1% in August. Qantas loses it appeal against a Federal Court ruling. Newcastle port has longer waiting list of ships to be loaded.[/R]

Australian stocks fluctuated several times to close modestly higher. The benchmark index snapped a three week losing streak to gain 3.92%, for its highest weekly gain since last August, boosted by performance of gold stocks.

ASX 200 Index gained 0.19% or 8.5 to close at 4,541.20.

New vehicles sales were up strongly, underlining the resilience of household demand outside of the retail sector.

The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries said vehicle sales were up 8,835 or 12.1% in August compared to a year earlier, compared to 9.3% growth in July. August sales totaled 82,122, down 0.3% on July’s 82,637. Vehicle sales for the year to date were 695,666, 15.2% ahead of the same period in 2009.

Clean energy industry association rallied behind independent MP’s push to have renewable energy on the agenda of the next federal government.

Australia’s services industry shrank in August at a slower pace as companies increased hiring to meet demand for communication services.

The index rose 0.9% to 47.5 from July, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and the Australian Industry Group said in Sydney Friday.

Port Waratah Coal Services Ltd, operator of two export terminals at Newcastle in Australia, said queues of ships waiting to load the commodity at the harbor are unacceptably long, causing higher costs for the industry.

An average of 46 ships have queued outside the port in New South Wales waiting to load cargoes since January, compared with 30 vessels the previous year, Port Waratah said Friday.

Qantas Airways Ltd maybe forced to pay millions of dollars as commissions to travel agents after failing in its bid to overturn a Federal Court ruling.

Resources News

Canada-based Eldorado Gold Corp said it approached Andean Resources, Australia’s second-largest gold company, with an A$3.5 billion merger proposal.

Santos said it is approaching the hub of hybrid market, Europe, in a bid to raise new capital to ease the burden of the A$6 billion Gladstone LNG project from its shareholders.

Shares of copper and gold explorer Sandfire Resources have been placed in a trading halt pending the announcement of a resource upgrade.

EnviroGold said it got notification that outstanding Dominican security documents regarding the Las Lagunas gold tailings project have been completed and will be signed next week.

Rum Jungle Uranium announced further significant copper assays along with gold and silver credits.

Gainers & Losers

Macquarie Atlas Roads Group led the gainers in the ASX 200 Index with a gain of 8.63% to A$1.385 followed by Mirabella Nickel Ltd 8.28% to A$1.83 and Spotless Group Ltd 5.66% to A$2.24.

Aristocrat Leisure Ltd led the losers in the index with a drop of 4.96% to A$3.64 followed by West Australian Newspapers Holdings Ltd 4.64% to A$6.58 and Biota Holdings Ltd 4.28% to A$0.895.