Australian Stocks Struggle; Newcrest Gold Production Up 16%

Marcus Jacob
21 Jul, 2011
New York City

The benchmark index in Australia closed higher after resource stocks rebounded. The world sentiment improved after the U.S. debt talks progressed and European minister appear to have a plan for the second Greek bailout. Newcrest Mining said gold production soared 16%.

[R]4:30 PM Sydney – The benchmark index in Australia closed higher after resource stocks rebounded. The world sentiment improved after the U.S. debt talks progressed and European minister appear to have a plan for the second Greek bailout. Newcrest Mining said gold production soared 16%.[/R]

Stocks in Sydney edged higher after rallying in the previous session. The benchmark index ascent was slowed after a private index tracking manufacturing in China showed its first contraction in July.

The market sentiment was also positive after France dropped its proposal to tax 50 billion euros on banks to pay for Greek bailout.

The new agreement between France and Germany ahead of the ministers meeting later in the day in Brussels is expected to pave the way for second Greek bailout of more than 100 billion euros.

The ASX 200 index increased 6.30 or 0.14% to 4,556.0 and All Ordinaries index added 7.8 or 0.17% to 4,626.20.

The Australian dollar decreased 0.4% to US$1.07. Spot gold in Sydney trading increased $11.20 to US$1,602.70 an ounce.

In trading, turnover decreased to 2.23 billion shares worth $4.73 billion and 579 shares closed higher, 472 declined and 376 were unchanged.

Stock Movers

News Corp added 24 cents to $15.48 and its non-voting stock added 15 cents to $14.90 on the rising media speculation in the U.S. that the company is likely to face a change of leadership in the near future.

The prospect of the resolution on the U.S. debt talks and Greek bailout later today lifted financial sector.

ANZ increased 6 cents to $21.26, National Australia Bank added 31 cents to $24.60 and Commonwealth Bank gained 19 cents to $49.74.

Newcrest Mining declined 21 cents to $40.60 and the company said its gold production in the fourth quarter increased 16% to 700,124 ounces. For the full year, gold production increased to 2.7 million ounces compared to 1.76 million ounces before it acquired Lihir Gold.

Copper production declined to 75,631 tons compared to 86,574 tons a year ago.

BHP Billiton increased 14 cents to $43.58 and Rio Tinto decreased 21 cents to $82.34.

Santos Ltd decreased 4 cents to $13.31 and production in the quarter decreased 5% from a year ago.