Australian Dollar Nears Parity; Sydney Stocks Climb 1.7%

Chandrasekhar Atreya
14 Oct, 2010
New York City

Australian shares gained more than 1.7% led by banks and miners as the Australian dollar neared parity. Business demand for credit dropped in the quarter to September. HSBC

[R]5:00 PM Sydney, Australia – Australian shares gained more than 1.7% led by banks and miners as the Australian dollar neared parity. Business demand for credit dropped in the quarter to September. HSBC’s Australian unit completed its first cross-border yuan trade settlement.[/R]

Stocks in Australia traded higher led by banks and miners on a sharp rise in trading volume as the Australian dollar neared parity.

The ASX 200 Index gained 1.71% or 79.20 to close at 4,699.10.

The Australian dollar rose to a 28-year high today as it traded just short of parity with the U.S. dollar, rising to a post-float high. The Australian dollar closed at 99.74 U.S cents in trade today.

Consumer’s inflationary expectations rose in October amid growing worries for the global financial system.

The Melbourne Institute Survey of Consumer Inflationary Expectations’ median expected inflation rate for October rose to 3.8% from 3.1% in September, for the second consecutive monthly increase after falling for five months in a row.

Land sales in metropolitan cities of Australia fell 3.6% in the June quarter, but a block in Sydney costs almost $300,000 a housing report showed.

Sydney remains the most expensive city to buy land, with a median value of $280,000, followed by Sunshine Coast at $261,750, the latest Housing Industry Association RP Data on residential land report showed.

Business demand for credit dropped in the quarter to September, as firms adopted cost saving measures in the face of waning government stimulus, a survey showed.

Credit card data collectors’ Veda Advantages Business Credit Demand Index showed a 5.7% drop in the number of small to medium businesses to take credit in the quarter ended September.

Bank of Queensland on Thursday reported a A$179.6 million full year net profit, up 27% from a year ago, and also tipped higher growth this year.

The federal government is planning to ask a new parliamentary committee for regional Australia to examine the possible human costs of cutting water usage in the Murray-Darling Basin. The committee will investigate the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s proposal to cut irrigation use by about 4,000 gigaliters to aid environment.

“It is likely to have a strong focus on understanding the human impact of any proposed changes,” Regional Australia Minister Simon Crean said in a joint statement with Water Minister Tony Burke and Agricultural Minister Joe Ludwig on Thursday.

Potash Corp in its efforts to fend off BHP Billiton’s hostile bid, promised shareholders its CEO will spend significantly more time at its Canadian headquarters.

Currently Potash Corp’s CFO and Potash operation’s President live in Saskatchewan. However, CEO William Doyle splits his time between residences in Saskatchewan and Chicago, where the company also has a corporate headquarters.

Rio Tinto Group, the world’s third-largest mining company, said its third quarter iron ore production rose to a record on demand from China.

Output rose to 47.6 million tons in the quarter to September, from 47 million tons a year earlier, the London-based company said today in a statement. The company also approved $1.3 billion of spending on expansions at its iron ore assets in Australia in the quarter.

HSBC Holdings Plc’s Australian unit completed its first cross-border yuan trade settlement with a transaction for PanAsia Group an aluminum trader from Australia.

The deal was completed with the aluminum trader’s supplier in China, who also banks with HSBC in Shenzhen, according to a statement from the bank.

Resource News

Manganese miner OM Holdings and Consolidated Minerals ended their merger talks after failing to reach an agreement on a mutually suitable transaction structure.

Coalspur Mines said Wednesday they have settled their acquisitions of new coal leases in Canada, which are contiguous with their Vista coal project.

Aura Energy was able to identify new uranium target areas in northern Mauritania by using ground radiometry survey. The find adds 40 to 60 million pounds to the exploration target.

Hill End Gold increased the resource estimate for the Reward deposit in NSW to 243,900 ounces of gold, bringing the total for the Hargraves and Hill End projects to 567,500 ounces.