Australia Halts 4-Day Losing Streak; Seven Group Up

Marcus Jacob
12 Apr, 2012
New York City

Stocks and indexes in Australian gained after employers added 44,000 net new jobs in March. The quarterly job addition of 76,000 was the best since the final quarter of 2010. Seven Group agreed to acquire equipment distribution business of the U.S. based Bucyrus.

[R]8:00 PM Sydney – Stocks and indexes in Australian gained after employers added 44,000 net new jobs in March. The quarterly job addition of 76,000 was the best since the final quarter of 2010. Seven Group agreed to acquire equipment distribution business of the U.S. based Bucyrus.[/R]

Australian stocks gained halting a 4-day losing streak after the employers added substantially more jobs than expected in March.

The ASX 200 index gained 34.50 to 4,280.60 and All Ordinaries index increased 34.38 to 4,361.70.

The dollar was relatively firm and gained 1 cent to $1.04 after the release of employment data.

Australian employers added 44,000 net new jobs in March and unemployment rate declined to 5.2% in the month. Full time jobs increased 15,800, the largest monthly increase in the year and part-time jobs expanded 28,200.

In the quarter, employers added 76,700 new jobs, the largest quarterly growth since the final quarter in 2010 according to the latest data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Stock Movers

In mining industry news, Flinders Mines was halted ahead of court ruling on a takeover offer of $554 million from a Russia based steel maker.

BHP Billiton increased 31 cents to $33.90 and Rio Tinto soared 94 cents to $64.46.

Lynas Corporation Limited closed up 2 cents to $1.03 and Iluka Resources unchanged to $17.27. PanAust added 16 cents to $3.13 after the Laos focused miner said it exceeded its production expectation at its main copper mine in the first quarter to March.

Newcrest Mining increased 11 cents to $28.97 and Kingsgate increased 12 cents to $6.13.

MEO Australia gained 3.5 cents to 34 cents after the company said it has been approached by customers to buy methanol from its Timor Sea project.

Oil Search Limited rose 4 cents to $6.95. Woodside Petroleum gained 18 cents to $34.22 and Santos Limited advanced 18 cents to $14.00. Oil Search rose 4 cents to $6.95.

David Jones Limited increased 2 cents to $2.26, Harvey Norman Holdings closed up 4 cents to $1.91 and Woolworths increased 9 cents to $25.59. Myer advanced 5 cents to $2.32 and Kathmandu closed down 1 cent at $1.28.

Billabong International Limited unchanged to $2.82.

Westpac Banking Corporation soared 15 cents to $22.05 and Commonwealth Bank of Australia gained 16 cents to close at $49.76. Bank of Queensland increased 15 cents to $6.90.

Macquarie Group surged 29 cents to $28.20 and QBE Insurance Group increased 1% after it issued an optimistic outlook for the year.

Seven Group surged 53 cents to $10.34 after the company agreed to acquire local parts and services business of the U.S. mining equipment maker Bucyrus for $389.39 million. WesTrac, Seven controlled will merge its Caterpillar distribution business with the newly purchased division.

Real estate developers closed mixed Westfield Group fell 2 cents to $8.74 and Stockland rose 2 cents to $2.94.

Ten Network increased 2 cents to 78 cents after chief executive James Warburton indicated that advertising market was less volatile than before.

Qantas closed up 4 cents to $1.65, Virgin Australia unchanged to 42 cents and Flight Centre increased 17 cents to $21.32.

QR National gained 3 cents to $3.60.