Retailers Shine in Sydney Trading, ASX Index Gains

Marcus Jacob
27 Dec, 2012
New York City

Australian stocks gained for the second day in a row as retailers and resource sector stocks led the advance. Fortescue Metals jumped 4% after the company announced a plan to resume Kings deposit expansion in January.

[R]7:30 PM Sydney – Australian stocks gained for the second day in a row as retailers and resource sector stocks led the advance. Fortescue Metals jumped 4% after the company announced a plan to resume Kings deposit expansion in January.[/R]

Australian stocks extended gains for the second day after resource stocks advanced. The ASX 200 index increased a new 17-month high after retailers gained on higher than expected sales during the holiday period.

The ASX 200 index increased 12.80 or 0.3% to 4,648 and the broader All Ordinaries gained 15.82 to 4,661.43.

Australian dollar backed off from its 3-month high to $1.035, the lowest since November.

In stock trading, turnover decreased to 855 million shares worth $1.3 billion from the average trading of 1.5 billion shares worth $4 billion.

The Australian Retailers Association estimated total of $14.8 billion to be spent in the post-Christmas sales.

Stock Movers

BHP Billiton Limited gained 13 cents to $36.99 and Rio Tinto Limited jumped 61 cents to $65.45.

Lynas Corporation Limited added 0.5 cent to 58 cents, Iluka Resources increased 11 cents to $8.74 and Fortescue Metals climbed 18 cents or 4.1% to $4.53.

Fortescue said it would resume expansion work at Kings deposit at its Solomon iron ore mining hub in January on the recent increase in spot market prices for the ore.

Mirabela Nickel added 1 cent to 49 cents and Newcrest Mining slumped 18 cents to $22.52. Kingsgate lowered 5 cents to $4.36.

Whitehaven Coal rose 2 cents to $3.51.

Transfield Services gained 4 cents to $1.91 and engineering contractors WorleyParsons increased 14 cents to $23.71.

Monadelphous Group advanced 44 cents to $24.40 and Downer EDI increased 5 cents to $3.95.

Lend Lease jumped 10 cents to $9.20.

Oil Search Limited up 2 cents to $6.98 and Santos Limited gained 4 cents to $11.

Woodside Petroleum climbed 22 cents to $34.03 and Origin Energy Limited increased 7 cents to $11.65.

Seven West Media gained 4 cents to $1.60. Harvey Norman Holdings up 3 cents to $1.88.

Woolworths down 1 cent to $29.50 and Kathmandu added 2 cents to $1.59.

David Jones Limited increased 7 cents to $2.41 and Wesfarmers gained 4 cents to $36.85. Breville Group advanced 9 cents to $6.43.

Billabong International Limited climbed 4 cents or 4.8% to 87 cents.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia declined 21 cents to $62.12 and Bank of Queensland closed unchanged at $7.36 and ANZ decreased 6 cents to $24.91.

Macquarie Group jumped 55 cents to $35.32 and Perpetual Limited climbed 48 cents to $34.54. National Australia Bank increased 7 cents to $24.95. Westpac slipped 7 cents to $26.10.

NAB said Boxing Day transactions increased 30% from a year ago with 3.8 million debit and credit card transactions. Total number of transaction in the year ago period was just below 3 million. At peak, transactions increased to 100 a second from 80 a second a year ago and surged to as high as 207.

Toll Holdings added 3 cents to $4.54, Leighton up 3 cents to $17.84 and property developer Mirvac Group down 2 cents to $1.48.

Westfield Group slid 1 cent to $10.60.

Qantas closed unchanged at $1.47, Flight Centre jumped 50 cents to $26.90 and Virgin Australia increased 0.5 cents to 42 cents.

Telstra added 3 cents to $4.40.