Australian Markets Gain, Qantas-Emirate Plan Wins Preliminary Approval

Marcus Jacob
20 Dec, 2012
New York City

The benchmark index in Sydney closed higher and extended gains in the year above 12%. Qantas won a preliminary approval for its cooperation with Emirates for sharing passenger and freight transportation across their networks that could save $150 million a year.

[R]7:30 PM Sydney – The benchmark index in Sydney closed higher and extended gains in the year above 12%. Qantas won a preliminary approval for its cooperation with Emirates for sharing passenger and freight transportation across their networks that could save $150 million a year.[/R]

Australian stocks generally closed higher and banks led the gainers. Qantas was in focus after the airline won preliminary approval from the competition authority for its cooperation plan with Emirates.

The ASX 200 index gained 16.30 to 4,634.10 and the broader All Ordinaries increased 13.38 to 4,646.63.

Australian dollar backed off from its 3-month high to $1.044.

In stock trading, turnover increased to 2.08 billion shares worth $6.48 billion and 472 stocks increased, 445 decreased and 348 closed unchanged.

Stock Movers

BHP Billiton Limited slid 2 cents to $37.04 and Rio Tinto Limited declined 41 cents to $65.30.

Lynas Corporation Limited slipped 2 cents to 59.5 cents, Iluka Resources increased 11 cents to $8.76 and Fortescue Metals slumped 16 cents to $4.50.

Mirabela Nickel down 1 cent to 46.5 cents and Newcrest Mining decreased 7 cents to $22.49. Kingsgate lowered 6 cents to $4.53.

Whitehaven Coal extended gains for the second day by 3 cents to $3.50 after the company confirmed that it held talks with China based Shenhua Group but no offer was discussed.

Transfield Services closed unchanged at $1.88 and engineering contractors WorleyParsons slipped 4 cents to $23.55.

Monadelphous Group added 2 cents to $23.41. Downer EDI up 1 cent to $3.93 after the company agreed to a settlement of S$50 million for a tunnel dispute in Singapore.

Lend Lease increased 11 cents to $9.23.

Oil Search Limited slipped 8 cent to $6.99 and Santos Limited down 16 cents to $10.72.

Woodside Petroleum declined 39 cents to $33.51 after company faced legal challenges for the process of acquiring environmental permits for its controversial Browse gas hub project in Western Australia.

Origin Energy Limited gained 4 cents to $11.71.

Seven West Media decreased 7 cents to $1.56. Harvey Norman Holdings closed unchanged at $1.87.

Woolworths increased 10 cents to $29.49 and Kathmandu climbed 5 cents to $1.60.

David Jones Limited down 7 cents to $2.38 and Wesfarmers jumped 48 cents to $36.61. Breville Group gained 4 cents to $6.44.

Billabong International Limited declined 50 cents or 5.9% to 80 cents.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia increased 18 cents to $61.51 and Bank of Queensland added 5 cents to $7.33 and ANZ advanced 16 cents to $24.80.

Macquarie Group gained 8 cents to $34.90 and Perpetual Limited slipped 4 cents to $34.34. National Australia Bank added 8 cents to $24.88. Westpac gained 17 cent to $25.97.

Toll Holdings down 1 cent to $4.53, Leighton slumped 13 cents to $17.42 and property developer Mirvac Group gained 4 cents to $1.52.

Westfield Group increased 9 cents to $10.62.

Qantas added 1 cent to $1.46 and the airline received preliminary competition regulatory approval for its alliance with Emirates. The approval permits two airlines to cooperate on passenger and freight operations across their networks. However, regulators limited the time frame to five years compared to the ten years requested by two airlines.

The final approval is likely to be released in March just before the ending of Qantas alliance with British Air.

The proposal also needs to win approval from regulators in New Zealand and Singapore.

Flight Centre gained 4 cents to $26.54 and Virgin Australia closed unchanged at 40.5 cents.

Telstra rose 1 cent to $4.35.