Sydney Index at 8-Month High; Coal Exports to Resume

Chandrasekhar Atreya
14 Jan, 2011
New York City

Stocks in Sydney rose to end at their highest in more than eight months. Residents of Tasmania and Victoria are evacuated while donations to flood relief fund pours in. Port of Gladstone expects coal exports to begin on Saturday.

[R]6:00 PM Sydney, Australia – Stocks in Sydney rose to end at their highest in more than eight months. Residents of Tasmania and Victoria are evacuated while donations to flood relief fund pours in. Port of Gladstone expects coal exports to begin on Saturday.[/R]

Australian shares rallied in late afternoon to finish at their highest in more than eight months or since April 2010.

The ASX 200 in Sydney added 0.13% or 6.30 to close at 4,801.50 and gained 2.05% rising 96.5 in the week.

The Australian dollar ended the week close to parity at 99.71 U.S. cents in Sydney today.

Residents of northern Tasmania have been ordered to evacuate amid fears that dams could burst and inundate homes, after the state has been hit with the same storm front that caused devastating floods on the east coast of Australia.

In Victoria up to 50 homes have been inundated in the town of Beaufort and hundreds of homes have been evacuated elsewhere in the western part of the state.

Coal miners in Fitzroy Basin of Queensland have stepped up their campaign to relax the strict environmental rules that bar water discharges saying they could delay the resumption of mining by months.

Coles and Woolworths say they have collected so far more than A$4 million in donations from shoppers. To date, sports organizations, celebrities and corporations have contributed a total of A$45.5 million to the Official Relief Fund of the premier of Queensland.

Telstra and Optus could face A$50 million of flood repair bill and three months to repair communications network in Queensland. Tens of thousands of people have been left without mobile, landline or internet access since the floods struck.

The Port of Gladstone said it will restart exports of coal on Saturday. The port will be receiving six trainloads of coal trapped by flood waters to be released by QR National today said CEO Leo Zussino of the port.

Leighton Holdings, which stopped work on the $4.1 billion Airport Link project in Brisbane due to floods, is resuming the work today after employees returned to work.

Qantas, Australia’s largest airline, has settled a U.S. class action lawsuit over an alleged freight cartel by paying $26.5 million.

Stock Movers

Shares in Dulux Group fell 2.82% to A$2.76 after its main coatings plant in Brisbane was shut down due to flooding.

Continental Coal, the most traded stock by volume fell 1.14% to A$8.7.

Among the major banks, National Australia Bank added 17 cents to A$24.37 while Commonwealth Bank gained 28 cents to close at A$51.41. ANZ added 9 cents to A$23.05 and Westpac Banking Corp rose 17 cents to A$22.49.

BHP Billiton closed 20 cents down at A$45.85 and rival Rio Tinto gained 48 cents to A$87.53.

Reject Shop was the largest gainer with 5.5% to A$13.80 and Charter Hall Group was the largest loser with a drop of 3.34% to A$2.32.