Australian Stocks Rally; ResMed, Karoon Advance

Marcus Jacob
25 Jan, 2013
New York City

Stocks in Sydney advanced for the eighth day in a row and market indexes closed at a new 21-month high. Karoon Gas gained after it reported oil discovery off the coast of Brazil. MacMahon declined 4% on the worries that its Mongolian customer has financing difficulties.

[R]6:30 PM Sydney – Stocks in Sydney advanced for the eighth day in a row and market indexes closed at a new 21-month high. Karoon Gas gained after it reported oil discovery off the coast of Brazil. MacMahon declined 4% on the worries that its Mongolian customer has financing difficulties.[/R]

Stocks in Australian extended gains for the eighth day in a row and the benchmark index closed at a new 21-month high.

Stocks opened higher and stayed in the positive zone and extended gains in the final ten minutes of trading. Markets are closed on Monday to celebrate Australia Day.

The ASX 200 index climbed 25 or 0.5% to 4,835.20 and the broader All Ordinaries increased 25.11 to 4,858.88. For the week, the ASX 200 index jumped 1.3% and the index is up 3.8% in the year so far.

The Australian dollar declined and closed at $1.0452 and fell below $1.05 level for the first time in the current year.

Stock Movers

Newcrest Mining declined 36 cents to $23.62. Kingsgate plunged 28 cents or 6% to $4.40 and Whitehaven Coal closed unchanged at $3.50.

Fortescue Metals Group traded volatile and down 7 cents to close at $4.56 after the company said it shipped 19.6 million tons of iron ore. The company also said it received $111 a dry tonnage.

MacMahon Holdings dropped 4% to 27 cents after the company said it may face financial problems at its coal mine in Mongolia if its client Erdene Tavan Tolgoi cannot resolve its funding problems.

Transfield Services gained 4 cents to $1.78 and engineering contractor WorleyParsons lowered 1 cent to $24.32. Monadelphous Group advanced 81 cents to $26.19 and Downer EDI increased 9 cents to $4.41.

Lend Lease jumped 11 cents to $10.19.

Linc Energy plunged 26 cents or 9.7% to $2.41 after surging 13% and 33% in the last two sessions. Earlier in the day, the stock ran up 12% before reversing its course.

Karoon Gas Australia jumped 14% to $6.15 after the company said it found oil at its Kangaroo-1 block off the coast of Brazil.

Oil Search Limited up 1 cent to $7.11 and Santos Limited slid 1 cent to $11.85.

Woodside Petroleum gained 6 cents to $35.75 and Origin Energy Limited fell 1 cent to $12.27.

Woolworths increased 44 cents to $31.61 and Kathmandu added 1 cent to $1.73.

David Jones Limited gained 6 cents to $2.45 and Wesfarmers sliped 6 cents to $37.95. Breville Group closed unchanged at $6.70.

Billabong added 0.5 cents to 96.5 cents.

Specialty Fashion Group soared 38% to 97 cents after the apparel retailer estimated first half net would triple and the company is scheduled to report earnings on February 18.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia climbed 35 cents to $63.59 and Bank of Queensland gained 13 cents to $8.06 and ANZ up 7 cents to $26.07. National Australia Bank jumped 15 cents to $27.24. Westpac climbed 45 cents to $27.55.

Toll Holdings increased 6 cents to $5.08, Leighton advanced 92 cents or 4.8% to $20 and property developer Mirvac Group added 1 cent to $1.56.

Westfield Group increased 14 cents to $10.97.

ResMed, the maker of sleep disorders treatment products increased 7% to $4.58 after revenues in the second quarter increased 13% and net profit soared 24% on demands in the U.S. and Europe.