Australian Investors Look Beyond Oil; Amcor, Visy Settle Price-fixing Case

Marcus Jacob
08 Mar, 2011
New York City

Australian stocks closed higher as investors focused on domestic economic developments. Amcor and Visy Group settled price-fixing case for nearly $700 million. Amcor completed the sale of 550 million euro bonds.

[R]5:00 PM Sydney – Australian stocks traded higher as investors focused on domestic economic developments. Amcor and Visy Group settled price fixing case fro nearly $700 million. Amcor completed the sale of 550 million euro bonds.[/R]

Australian investors looked beyond the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa and focused on the domestic stocks and rising trade between the nation and China. The two nations are expected to increase daily air passenger capacity by 50% to 8,000.

The ASX 200 index increased 10.30 to 4,808.20 and the broader All Ordinaries index added 6.6 to 4,902.50.

The Australian dollar closed at US$1.0115 and crude oil inched higher US$1.03 to US105.35.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in talks with the Arab League president offered to form an interim government on the condition for the safe passage for his entourage. Rebels groups in Benghazi and outside Tripoli have rejected the offer according to 123jump.com sources.

In domestic news, after close Amcor and Visy Group agreed to settle a price-fixing class action lawsuit for $697 million.

The largest class action suit in Australia was brought by 7,500 companies for price fixing between the two companies for a number of years to 2004.

The two companies had agreed since the year 2000 to fix price of corrugated fiber-board packaging and carve out market.

Stock Movers

Resource stocks closed mixed. BHP Billiton increased 27 cents to $46.59 and Rio Tinto declined 24 cents to $83.91. Fortescue Metals decreased 7 cents to $6.40.

Energy stocks closed higher. Santos increased 13 cents to $14.82 and Oil Search increased 4 cents to $6.80. Woodside Petroleum added 28 cents to $42.70.

Banks gained in trading. ANZ increased 28 cents to $23.77 and National Australia Bank added 16 cents to $25.30 and Commonwealth Bank gained 12 cents to $51.81.

Amcor, the largest Australian packaging company closed up 11 cents to $7.04 after it raised 550 million euros through the sale of 8-year bonds and refinance its existing debt.

Lynas edged up 1 cent to $2.09 on the speculation that the company is in talks to sell its Western Australia mines with rare earth deposits.

News Corp decreased 13 cents to $18.02 and CSL fell 57 cents to $35.15.

Construction and industrial stocks closed mixed. Leighton gained 4 cents to $31.18, Brambles decreased 3 cents to $7.03 and Transurban added 2 cents to $5.32.