Record Australian Property Taxes; News Corp Violates U.S. Ownership Rules

Marcus Jacob
19 Apr, 2012
New York City

Australian stocks advanced to an eight month high and a private report indicated property tax collection reached a record high of $33 billion last year. News Corp invites another unflattering attention to the company after it discovered it violated U.S. foreign ownership rules.

[R]8:00 PM Sydney – Australian stocks advanced to an eight month high and a private report indicated property tax collection reached a record high of $33 billion last year. News Corp invites another unflattering attention to the company after it discovered it violated U.S. foreign ownership rules.[/R]

Australian stocks advanced and closed to a 8-month high following the international markets sentiment but market indexes trimmed gains in the afternoon ahead of Spanish and French bond offerings.

The ASX 200 index gained 14 or 0.3% to 4,362.70 and All Ordinaries index rose 14.10 to 4,441.30.

After the close, Spanish Treasury auctioned €2.54 billion in two- and 10-year bonds at higher yields. France sold €8 billion of two, three and five-year bonds today at higher borrowing costs.

Record High Property Tax Collection

Australian state governments collected a total of $33 billion in property related taxes in 2011 according to the data released by RP Data.

The latest report showed the revenues from property taxes increased 4.6% largely on the increase in taxes as transaction volume and property prices decline.

Stamp duty alone in the year was slightly up from a year ago to $12.3 billion but down significantly from record $14.2 billion in 2007.

Stock Movers

News Corp edged up a cent to $18.95 and the company said it has suspended voting rights of international investors by half after it discovered breach in U.S. ownership rules what company said in a routine “shareholder structure review.”

News Corp is facing a number of inquiries in the U.K. related to phone hacking scandals and aggressive management tactics covering up the scandal.

Controversial Chairman Rupert Murdoch said in a statement that his family trust that controls 39.7% of voting shares will not vote with a portion of their shares during the suspension to meet the U.S. foreign ownership rules.

BHP Billiton increased 40 cents to $35.50 and Rio Tinto rose 10 cents to $66.60 after the iron miner blamed weather for its recent production woes.

Lynas Corporation Limited closed up 1 cent to $1.14 and Iluka Resources advanced 47 cents to $17.54.

Newcrest Mining declined 48 cents to $28.16 and Kingsgate unchanged to $6.22.

Oil Search Limited closed up 2 cents at $6.99. Woodside Petroleum added 49 cents to $35.04 and Santos Limited rose 4 cents to $14.04.

David Jones Limited increased 7 cents to $2.49, Harvey Norman Holdings closed up 2 cents to $2.00 and Woolworths gained 20 cents to $25.85. Myer unchanged to $2.34 and Kathmandu closed up 8 cents at $1.37.

Billabong International Limited fell 5 cents to $2.83.

Westpac Banking Corporation decreased 4 cents to $22.02 and Commonwealth Bank of Australia unchanged to $50.78. Bank of Queensland added 4 cents to $7.18. ANZ rose 4 cents to $23.30 and Macquarie Group dropped 50 cents to $29.27.

Real estate developers closed mixed Westfield Group slipped 15 cents to $9.02 and the heavily leveraged mall developer said it plans to sell eight shopping centers in the U.S. for $1.11 billion to pare down its debt.

Stockland rose 4 cents to $3.05.

Qantas closed down 1 cent to $1.65, Virgin Australia unchanged to 41.5 cents and Flight Centre increased 4 cents to $21.46.

QR National fell 1 cent to $3.64.