Australian Business Lending Declined For the Fourth Month

Marcus Jacob
16 Apr, 2012
New York City

Australian stocks fell after business lending declined for the fourth month in a row in February. Whitehaven Coal completed the purchase of Aston Resources. Linc Energy announced a joint venture to explore natural gas in China.

[R]8:00 PM Sydney – Australian stocks fell after business lending declined for the fourth month in a row in February. Whitehaven Coal completed the purchase of Aston Resources. Linc Energy announced a joint venture to explore natural gas in China.[/R]

Australian stocks fell on the rising worries in the euro zone and a growing speculation that Spain may follow Greece as sovereign bond yield rose to a new high for the year.

In addition, lending to businesses fell for the fourth month in a row in February. The loans to businesses fell 8.4% after following 1.1% in January according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The ASX 200 index decreased 21.0 to 4,302.30 and All Ordinaries index fell 21.67 to 4,382.50.

Stock Movers

Aston Resources closed unchanged at $10.23 after the shareholders approved a friendly takeover $5.1 billion offer from Whitehaven Coal.

BHP Billiton decreased 16 cents to $34.31 and Rio Tinto declined 76 cents to $65.19.

Lynas Corporation Limited closed down 1 cent to $1.10 and Iluka Resources dropped 74 cents to $17.06. Linc Energy added 20 cents to $1.27 after the company announced a joint venture to explore gas in China.

Newcrest Mining tumbled 79 cents to $28.45 and Kingsgate slipped 21 cents to $6.06.

Oil Search Limited rose 1 cent to $6.96. Woodside Petroleum slumped 56 cents to $34.20 and Santos Limited unchanged to $14.00.

David Jones Limited fell 2 cents to $2.29, Harvey Norman Holdings closed down 1 cent to $1.92 and Woolworths gained 3 cents to $25.75. Myer decreased 2 cents to $2.32 and Kathmandu closed down 3 cents at $1.29.

Billabong International Limited increased 4 cents to $2.89.

Westpac Banking Corporation decreased 4 cents to $22.08 and Commonwealth Bank of Australia dropped 8 cents to close at $50.10. Bank of Queensland added 4 cents to $7.03. ANZ added 14 cents to $23.12 and Macquarie Group declined 46 cents to $28.53.

Real estate developers closed mixed Westfield Group gained 3 cents to $8.95 and Stockland fell 3 cents to $2.96. Dexus added 0.5 cent to 90.5 cents after the office and industrial property owner sold majority of its properties in a $745 million deal.

Qantas closed down 1 cent to $1.65, Virgin Australia unchanged to 41 cents and Flight Centre decreased 15 cents to $21.35.

QR National fell 2 cents to $3.59.