Sydney Stocks at Nine-Month High; Australia Dollar Above Parity

Chandrasekhar Atreya
19 Jan, 2011
New York City

Stocks in Sydney rebounded to a nine-month high led by miners and banks. The Australia dollar trades higher. Woolworth and Wesfarmers are the two Australian retailers in the top global 250 retailers. Singapore Stock Exchange says it is on track to merge with ASX.

[R]6:00 PM Sydney, Australia – Stocks in Sydney rebounded to a nine-month high led by miners and banks. The Australia dollar trades higher. Woolworth and Wesfarmers are the two Australian retailers in the top global 250 retailers. Singapore Stock Exchange says it is on track to merge with ASX.[/R]

The Australian share market closed higher at nine-month high, driven by positive sentiments and gains in the resources and banking sectors.

The ASX 200 Index gained 0.68% or 32.80 to 4,834.60, which was its highest close since April 28, 2010, when it ended at 4,822.80.

The Australian dollar traded past parity and closed at $1.0053 in Sydney today.

The consumer confidence in the nation fell in January to a seven-month low on concern that flood damage in Queensland State will weaken the economy.

The sentiment index dropped to 104.6 from 111 in December, the lowest since June, according to a survey done by the Westpac Banking Corp and Melbourne Institute of 1,200 consumers between January 10 and January 16 and released today in Sydney.

Australian supermarkets Woolworths and Wesfarmers moves into the list of the worlds’ top 25 retailers in 2010, according to report by Deloitte.

Woolworths is ranked 20th in the list of top 250 retailers while Coles-owner Wesfarmers moved into the 23rd position from 28th last year in the latest global Powers of Retailing report. Wal-Mart led the list with $408.2 billion in revenues.

Eric Roozendaal, Treasurer of NSW, said net proceeds from the sale of electricity assets of the state government were A$3.272 billion, roughly A$2 billion less that the estimated amount announced in December.

The receding floods in the country have given the federal government and Telstra a new dilemma of whether to reconnect damaged buildings straight into NBN or reinstall soon-to-be-redundant copper technology.

The number of domestic travelers using airlines in Australia increased 6% in the last 12 months according to a new report.

The report by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics showed that 4.68 million passengers traveled in airlines within Australia in the year to November 2010. The report also shows that the number of flights in the period went up by 6% and the number seats by just over 8%.

Australian companies are estimated to lose more than half a billion dollars in earnings as a result of the devastating floods in Queensland and Victoria. The hardest hit sectors were insurance, transport, engineering and mining.

Rio Tinto said the force majeure declaration at four of its Queensland coalmines still remained in place but it could not yet quantify the full effect of the floods on its operations and earnings.

Singapore Exchange says it is on track to complete the $8.4 billion takeover of the Australian Stock Exchange despite some political obstacles. After reporting a 14% rise in second quarter net profit on Tuesday, SGX said the proposed merger was processed through all regulatory requirements as planned.

“We continue to work with the relevant stakeholders, including Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board, with the aim of completing the proposal in 2011, SGX Chief Executive Magnum Bocker said.

Stock Movers

Mining stocks ended mixed. BHP Billtion closed up 43 cents at A$46.05 while rival gained 82 cents to A$87.62.

Fortescue Metals, after gaining 8% on Tuesday, ended lower 8 cents to A$7.19.

ANZ Bank gained 1.09% or 25 cents to A$23.24, Westpac Banking Corp added 21 cents to A$22.61, Commonwealth Bank rose 32 cents to A$51.76 and National Australia Bank was 13 cents higher at A$24.40.

Retailers ended up strongly despite the drop in consumer confidence index.

JB Hi-Fi ended up 69 cents to A$19.55, Harvey Norman gained 11 cents to A$3.22, David Jones added 2.98% or 14 cents to A$4.84 and Myer ended up six cents or 1.65% to A$3.69.

Iluka Resources, which said its full year’s sales-revenue rose 63.4%, added 20 cents or 2.77% to A$9.02.