Australian Employers Cut 22,700 Jobs, Stocks in 6-Day Slump

Marcus Jacob
12 Jul, 2012
New York City

Australian indexes turned lower for the sixth day in a row after local employers cut 22,700 jobs in June and unemployment increased to 5.2%. The dollar edged lower ahead of GDP data from China tomorrow.

[R]8:00 PM Sydney – Australian indexes turned lower for the sixth day in a row after local employers cut 22,700 jobs in June and unemployment increased to 5.2%. The dollar edged lower ahead of GDP data from China tomorrow.[/R]

Market indexes declined for the sixth day in Sydney trading as investors awaited the latest GDP data at noon tomorrow.

The caution prevailed in trading as China is expected to report a slowdown in the second quarter GDP to 7.7% from the 8.1% increase in the March quarter.

In addition, Australian employers cut 27,000 jobs in June and unemployment rate increased to 5.2%, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

For the financial year ending in June, Australia added sharply lower 47,400 jobs compared to 222,700 jobs in the previous year.

Regionally jobless rate in June increased to 5.1% from 5% in New South Wales, inched up to 5.5% from 5.4% in Victoria, in Western Australia declined to 3.5% from 3.8% and in Queensland dropped to 5.3% from 5.7% in May.

The ASX 200 index slipped 28.50 to 4,068 and All Ordinaries index slid 28.99 to 4,106.

The Australian dollar closed at US$1.017 and traded near its record high at 83.43 euro cents. Gold traded at US$1,577 an ounce and crude oil futures edged up to US$85 a barrel.

In trading, turnover decreased to 1.32 billion shares worth $3.65 billion and 333 stocks rose, 534 decreased and 336 were unchanged.

Stock Movers

Telstra halted its five-day rally and fell 1 cent to $3.85 and the telecom operator sold its New Zealand unit TelstraClear to Vodafone for NZ$840 million or $660 million.

Billabong International Limited rose 2 cents to $1.07.

News Corp dropped 20 cents to $21.42 and Ten Network closed unchanged at 47.5 cents and Fairfax Media closed down 1 cent to 55.5 cents.

Resources stocks were lower after commodities prices declined ahead of the release of GDP data from China.

BHP Billiton Limited declined 65 cents to $30.40 and Rio Tinto Limited plummeted $1.40 to $54.25. Fortescue Metals Group slumped 30 cents to $4.62.

Iluka Resources slipped 29 cents to $8.98 after the zircon miner said first half sales increased 16.2% to $662.8 million.

Lynas Corporation Limited decreased 6.5 cents to 83.5 cents, Newcrest Mining declined $1.01 or 4.5% to $21.48 and Kingsgate slid 19 cents to $4.87.

Oil Search Limited fell 3 cents to $6.34 and Santos Limited slipped 12 cents to $10.40.

Metcash edged lower 2 cents to $3.17, Harvey Norman Holdings rose 3 cents to $1.94 and Woolworths decreased 9 cents to $26.91. Kathmandu fell 3 cents to $1.10.

David Jones Limited closed down 2 cents to $2.33.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia slipped 9 cents to $53.51 and Bank of Queensland fell 6 cents to $6.52. ANZ dropped 26 cents to $22.18. National Australia Bank decreased 13 cents to $23.46 and Westpac Banking Corporation added 5 cents to $21.87.

Macquarie Group fell 2 cents to $25.30 and Perpetual Limited plummeted 49 cents to $22.30.

Leighton advanced 16 cents to $15.55, Stockland slipped 7 cents to $3.09 and Toll Holdings slid 4 cents to $3.83.

Qantas closed unchanged at $1.04, Virgin Australia fell 0.5 cents to 38 cents and Flight Centre slid 5 cents to $20.58.

QR National closed unchanged at $3.30.