Australian Stocks and Dollar Ease

Marcus Jacob
19 Mar, 2013
New York City

Australian stocks rebounded in the early hours but failed to stay in the positive zone after comments from the Reserve Bank weighed on the market sentiment.

[R]6:30 PM Sydney – Australian stocks rebounded in the early hours but failed to stay in the positive zone after comments from the Reserve Bank weighed on the market sentiment.[/R]

Australian stocks opened higher and the benchmark ASX 200 index jumped as much as 0.75% in the early hours of trading.

Market indexes began a steady decline in the late afternoon and failed to participate in Asia-wide rebound.

Comments from minutes of RBA meeting held in March suggested that the central bank may be done with rate cutting for now.

The note said that interest rate sensitive segments of the economy continued to show signs of responding to recent rate cuts.

The ASX 200 index slipped 28 or 0.6% to 4,987.40 and the broader All Ordinaries fell 23.06 to 5,004.36.

Australian dollar traded near one-month high and closed at $1.037.

Stock Movers

Rio Tinto dropped 89 cents to $58.66 and BHP slipped 14 cents to $34.55. Fortescue Metals Group slid 1 cent to $3.89.

Woodside Petroleum gained 10 cents to $36.55 and Santos decreased 12 cents to $12.74.

Newcrest Mining rose 34 cents to $22.50. Kingsgate fell 1 cent to $3.94 and Whitehaven Coal closed unchanged at $2.32.

David Jones Limited added 2 cents to $2.96 and Breville Group up 2 cents to $5.34. Billabong gained 1.5 cents to 84 cents and Globe International closed unchanged at 40 cents.

Woolworths slumped 90 cents to $33.85. Kathmandu added 2 cents to $1.99.

Toll Holdings up 6 cents to $5.85, Leighton rose 29 cents to $21.90 and Mirvac Group fell 1 cent to $1.65. Lend Lease decreased 16 cents to $9.91.

Westpac slid 11 cents to $29.86, Commonwealth lowered 0.06% to $69.18 and National Australia Bank added 0.2% to $30.54 and ANZ down 0.9% to $27.83.

Macquarie Group slumped 40 cents to $36.85 and Wesfarmers dropped $1.01 to $41.09.