Australian Indexes Extend Gains as Commodities Advance

Marcus Jacob
17 Sep, 2012
New York City

Australian markets closed at a new 4-month high after oil, copper, iron ore, nickel and gold advanced in international markets. Fortescue Metals was halted for the second day in a row. Qantas won a regulatory approval for its code sharing alliance with South African Airways.

[R]8:30 PM Sydney – Australian markets closed at a new 4-month high after oil, copper, iron ore, nickel and gold advanced in international markets. Fortescue Metals was halted for the second day in a row. Qantas won a regulatory approval for its code sharing alliance with South African Airways.[/R]

Australian markets extended gains for the second week and closed at a new 4-month high after commodities advanced in international markets.

The ASX 200 index increased 12.50 to 4,402.50 and the broader All Ordinaries gained 11.62 to 4,421.80.

In trading, stock turnover on the ASX index stocks at 680 million shares was below the average of 820 million shares.

The Australian dollar consolidated its recent gains and eased to US$1.045.

Stock Movers

Fortescue Metals was halted for the second day as the company negotiates with its bankers the fate of its $9 billion debt. On Friday, before the halt the stock fell 14% to $2.99.

BHP Billiton Limited advanced 84 cents to $34.15 and, Rio Tinto Limited jumped 92 cents to $57.50.

Lynas Corporation Limited slid 1.5 cents to 88 cents and Iluka Resources surged $1.05 or 10.2% to $11.35.

Mirabela Nickel surged 10.6% to 36.5 cents after volatile metal price recovered. Nickel price rebounded to $8 a ton from $7 a ton last month after central banks in the U.S. and Europe embarked on a fresh round of money printing. The price of the metal was as high as $10 a ton in May.

Chief Executive Ian Purdy offered a conservative outlook for the industry and said its cash production cost has fallen to US$6.03 ton from US$7.37 a ton at its Santa Rita nickel mine in Brazil.

Newcrest Mining climbed 76 cents to $29.12; Kingsgate increased 17 cents to $5.50 and Whitehaven Coal slipped 11 cents to $3.05.

Transfield Services decreased 3 cents to $1.75; engineering contractors WorleyParsons gained 21 cents to $27.51 and Monadelphous Group slumped 19 cents to $19.85.

Oil Search Limited increased 11 cents to $7.86 and Santos Limited gained 7 cents to $12.02 and Woodside Petroleum added 4 cents to $34.90. Sundance Energy slid 1 cent to 74 cents.

Seven West Media lowered 6 cents to $1.26, Ten Network down to 35 cents and Fairfax Media slid 1 cent to 47 cents and the controversial News Corp. increased 18 cents to $23.71.

Myer fell 2 cents to $1.83 after the department store retailer’s full-year to June earnings declined 14.3% to $139.3 million and sales dropped 1.3% to $3.1 billion.

Harvey Norman Holdings closed unchanged at $1.99, Woolworths slumped 30 cents to $28.56 and Kathmandu closed unchanged at $1.39.

David Jones Limited decreased 7 cents to $2.23 and Wesfarmers slid 2 cents to $34.53. Billabong International Limited closed unchanged at $1.45. Breville Group slumped 6 cents to $5.22. Harvey Norman closed unchanged at $1.99.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia up 1 cent to $55.29 and Bank of Queensland added 3 cents to $7.78. ANZ increased 16 cents to $24.39. National Australia Bank gained 7 cents to $25.48 and Westpac Banking Corporation climbed 31 cents at $24.42.

Macquarie Group jumped 49 cents to $29.45 and Perpetual Limited added 5 cents to $27.65.

Toll Holdings gained 8 cents to $4.75, Leighton soared $1.32 or 8.4% to $17.05, and property developer Mirvac Group closed unchanged at $1.45.

Qantas closed unchanged at $1.24; Flight Centre declined $1.14 or 4.6% to $23.86 and Virgin Australia down 1 cent to 42 cents.

QR National lowered 2 cents to $3.40 and Telstra slid 3 cents to $3.79.