Virgin Australia Retained Profit Outlook, Monadelphous Estimates Higher Net

Marcus Jacob
20 Nov, 2012
New York City

Australian stocks extended gains for the second day and the dollar eased. Resource companies led the advance on the back of rising commodities prices. Monadelphous guided 40% increase in first half sales and 25% increase in current year earnings. Virgin Australia held its profit outlook.

[R]7:30 PM Sydney – Australian stocks extended gains for the second day and the dollar eased. Resource companies led the advance on the back of rising commodities prices. Monadelphous guided 40% increase in first half sales and 25% increase in current year earnings. Virgin Australia held its profit outlook.[/R]

Australian stocks and indexes generally traded higher on the rising optimism and improving international prices for base and precious metals.

The ASX 200 index advanced 24.30 or 0.6% to 4,385.70 and the broader All Ordinaries gained 24.84 to 4,407.46.

Australian dollar inched lower to $1.0382.

Stock Movers

BHP Billiton Limited increased 37 cents to $33.58 and Rio Tinto Limited jumped 77 cents to $57.48.

Lynas Corporation Limited gained 2.5 cents to 66 cents. Iluka Resources soared 60 cents or 8% to $8.11 and Fortescue Metals advanced 16 cents or 4.2% to $4.01.

Mirabela Nickel up 1 cent to 40.5 cents and Newcrest Mining climbed 24 cents to $25.24. Kingsgate increased 10 cents to $4.92 and Whitehaven Coal closed gained 9 cents to $2.83.

Transfield Services added 2 cents to $1.59 and Engineering contractors WorleyParsons jumped 34 cents to $24.69.

Monadelphous Group surged $1.24 or 6.1% to $21.50 after the construction services provider said income in the year to June increased 44.5% from a year ago to $137.3 million.

The company also guided 40% increase in sales in the first half to December and 25% increase in net profit in the full year on “record level of construction activities.”

Oil Search Limited up 2 cents to $7.05 and Santos Limited slumped 9 cents to $11.21 after the company discovered gas field off the coast of Western Australia’s Kimberly region.

Woodside Petroleum gained 8 cents to $33.64 and Origin Energy Limited jumped 33 cents to $10.58.

Seven West Media increased 5 cents to $1.51. Harvey Norman Holdings added 4 cents to $1.84.

Woolworths climbed 12 cents to $28.46 and Kathmandu slid 2 cents to $1.45.

David Jones Limited added 2 cents to $2.57 and Wesfarmers jumped 34 cents to $34.34. Breville Group gained 2 cents to $5.90.

Billabong International Limited gained 1.5 cents to 83 cents.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia dropped 24 cents to $57.91 and Bank of Queensland down 3 cents to $6.82 and ANZ decreased 11 cents to $23.54.

Macquarie Group climbed 22 cents to $30.55 and Perpetual Limited increased 20 cents to $28.95. National Australia Bank jumped 33 cents to $23.69. Westpac advanced 29 cents to $24.69.

Toll Holdings gained 5 cents to $4.32, Leighton added 2 cents to $16.68 and property developer Mirvac Group up 1 cent to $1.47.

Westfield Group slid 2 cents to $10.40.

Qantas slid 1 cent to $1.26, Flight Centre dropped 9 cents to $27.39.

Virgin Australia lowered 1.5 cent to 48 cents said pre-tax profit in the full-year to June increased to $82.5 million from 22.8 million. In the current year Virgin anticipates delivering higher profit but did not provide more details and blamed on the uncertain economic times.

The airline also said that its recent Tiger and Skywest deals are expected to impact profitability in the current year.

Virgin offered to acquire 60% stake in Tiger for $35 million and offered $98.7 million bid for Skywest.

QR National slipped 2 cents to $3.48 and Telstra up 1 cent to $4.18.