Australian Index in 3-day Decline; Qantas Offers Redundancies

Marcus Jacob
03 Jun, 2011
New York City

The Australian benchmark index declined for the third day in a row and closed down 2.2% for the week. BHP Billiton workers in Bowen Basin mines approved the right to call strike by the union. Qantas offered voluntary redundancies to as much as 5% of its cabin crew.

[R]5:30 PM Sydney – The Australian benchmark index declined for the third day in a row and closed down 2.2% for the week. BHP Billiton workers in Bowen Basin mines approved the right to call strike by the union. Qantas offered voluntary redundancies to as much as 5% of its cabin crew.[/R]

The ASX 200 index dropped 0.4% or 17.30 to 4,583.10 and All Ordinaries index fell 0.4% or 105.40 to 4,666.60. For the week both indexes fell 2%.

Stock trading turnover decreased for the fourth day in a row to 1.83 billion shares worth $4.6 billion. Of the shares traded, 472 increased, 612 declined and 389 were unchanged.

The Australian dollar declined a fraction to US$1.067 and crude oil price edged 7 cents lower to US$100.33 a barrel.

Stock Movers

Fortescue Metals closed unchanged at $6.45. BHP Billiton declined 32 cents to $43.23 and Rio Tinto fell 34 cents to $79.77.

Three workers unions at BHP Billiton approved the union’s right to call strike. The ballet counted today received 90% approval.

The unions representing 3,000 workers at seven mines controlled by BHP and Japanese partner Mitsubishi are demanding greater control over new recruiting and working conditions.

Energy stocks declined following a weakness in crude oil prices.

Woodside Petroleum Ltd fell 16 cents to $45.70 and Santos dropped 16 cents to $14.11.

Qantas declined 6 cents to $2.03 and the international carrier offered voluntary staff cut to flight attendants.

The carrier anticipates between 350 and 400 attendants to accept the offer, nearly 5% of 7,000 cabin crew. During the last redundancies in 2008, 150 cabin crew members accepted the offer.

Virgin Blue declined 0.5 cents to 28 cents.

Foster’s increased 15 cents to $4.43 on a takeover speculation.

Banks rebounded after falling for three of the four sessions in a row. Westpac declined 10 cents to $21.35, ANZ dropped 7 cents to $21.37, National Australia Bank eased 13 cents to $24.30 and Commonwealth Bank fell 11 cents to $49.51.

Riversdale Mining signed a deal with the commodities trading company Trafigura to sell US$200 million of thermal coal from its Benga mine in Mozambique. The deal is expected to cover all thermal coal production in the first stage of mine development at Benga.