Ten Day Rally in Australian Stocks, Coles Sales Higher

Marcus Jacob
30 Jan, 2013
New York City

Australian indexes gained higher for the tenth day in a row and indexes closed at new 21-month highs. Financials led the decliners and resource stocks gained. Wesfarmers declined despite the retail division Coles reported higher sales.

[R]6:30 PM Sydney – Australian indexes gained higher for the tenth day in a row and indexes closed at new 21-month highs. Financials led the decliners and resource stocks gained. Wesfarmers declined despite the retail division Coles reported higher sales.[/R]

Stocks in Sydney traded higher for the tenth day in a row and indexes reached new 21-month highs.

The ASX 200 index gained 7.70 to 4,896.70 and the broader All Ordinaries increased 8.21 to 4,919.06.

The Australian dollar declined and closed at $1.0425.

Stock Movers

Wesfarmers declined 70 cents to $38.10 after Coles division reported higher sales in the six month period.

Coles sales in six months to December increased 4.7% to $18.3 billion and increased 5.2% to $9.8 billion in the quarter. Sales at Bunnings and Office Works in the six-month period increased 4.9% to $4.7 billion and in the quarter rose 5.7% to $2.5 billion.

At the end of the period Coles had 753 stores in operations and during the quarter opened 10 new stores and closed four.

Coal production at Curragh mine declined 6.4% from the previous quarter to 2.67 million tons. Production declined after the company was forced to shut the mine for three weeks in the quarter. Production at Bengalla mine soared 25.1% to 827,000 tons.

For the fiscal 2013, coal mining volume are anticipated to declined 0.5 million tons on weaker demand and flood disruption.

Yancoal closed down at 3 cents to 90 cents and Fortescue Metals Group gained 4 cents to $4.73.

Newcrest Mining fell 1 cent to $23.22. Kingsgate slipped 5 cents to $4 and Whitehaven Coal slid 2 cents to $3.47.

Transfield Services closed unchanged at $1.79 and engineering contractor WorleyParsons added 49 cents to $25.81. Monadelphous Group rose 23 cents to $26.85 and Downer EDI gained 11 cents to $4.50.

Lend Lease lowered 2 cents to $10.23.

Oil Search Limited gained 10 cents to $7.30 and Santos Limited increased 32 cents to $12.14. Beach Energy up 4 cents to $1.44.

Woodside Petroleum added 15 cents to $36 and Origin Energy Limited up 3 cents to $12.45.

Woolworths decreased 22 cents to $31.65 and Kathmandu rose 2 cents to $1.74.

David Jones Limited closed unchanged at $2.54 and Wesfarmers dropped 69 cents to $38.13. Breville Group slumped 8 cents to $6.77.

Billabong lowered 2 cents to 92.5 cents.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia slid 3 cents to $64.70 and Bank of Queensland rose 15 cents to $8.25 and ANZ up 7 cents to $26.58. National Australia Bank slipped 8 cents to $27.64. Westpac fell 5 cents to $28.17.

Toll Holdings gained 9 cents to $5.27, Leighton climbed 99 cents or 4.9% to $21.29 and property developer Mirvac Group slipped 2 cents to $1.56.

Westfield Group added 4 cents to $11.09.