Australian Indexes Soar 1.7%, Prime Minister Rudd in Charge Ahead of Elections

Marcus Jacob
27 Jun, 2013
New York City

Australian stocks rebounded for the second day in a row and resource sector stocks gained. Australian job vacancies declined 7.3% in three months to May. News Corp settled shareholder lawsuit linked to phone hacking scandal in U.K. for $139 million.

[R]5:30 PM Sydney – Australian stocks rebounded for the second day in a row and resource sector stocks gained. Australian job vacancies declined 7.3% in three months to May. News Corp settled shareholder lawsuit linked to phone hacking scandal in U.K. for $139 million.[/R]

After a revolt in governing Labor Party leadership was transferred back to Kevin Rudd for the second time as Australia approaches election before the end of November.

Kevin Rudd was sworn in as Australian prime minister for second time after he defeated first woman prime minister Julia Gillard in a 57-45 vote among lawmakers.

The divided Labor Party faces uphill task in winning the next election that is required by constitution to be scheduled before the end of November.

Australian stocks rebounded for the second day in a row and the benchmark index in Sydney soared 1.7% after stocks in resource and banking sector led the advancers.

The ASX 200 index advanced 79.60 or 1.7% to close at 4,811.30 and the broader All Ordinaries jumped 77.30 to 4,784.80.

Australian dollar closed at 93.05 U.S. cents and in stock trading turnover increased to 897 million shares worth $5.1 billion.

Total number of job vacancies in three months to May declined 7.3% to 138,900 from the previous three months ending in February, Australian Bureau of Statistics said today.

Stocks in Review

Rio Tinto fell 11 cents to $51.79 and BHP down 15 cents to $31.47. Woodside Petroleum Limited gained 39 cents to $34.70.

David Jones Limited climbed 11 cents to $2.62 and Breville Group slid 8 cents to $7.03. Woolworths advanced $1 to $33.09.

Mirvac Group rose 4 cent to $1.59. Lend Lease added 2 cents to $8.42.

Westpac increased 57 cents to $28.81, Commonwealth jumped 2.8% to $69.16 and National Australia Bank up 1.8% to $29.75 and ANZ climbed 67 cents to $28.51.

Downer EDI Limited gained 12 cents to $3.62 after the infrastructure developer and consortium partner GE Australia and New Zealand secured contract worth $350 million to build stage one of the Boco Rock Wind Farm in New South Wales Snowy Mountains.

Graincorp closed unchanged at $12.54 after the grain supplier said the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will not oppose takeover deal for about $3 billion by the U.S. based Archer Daniels Midland.

News Corp climbed 2.2% to $31.15 and the controversial global media company agreed to pay $139 million to settles the lawsuits with shareholders related to British phone-hacking scandal.

Suncorp Group Limited rose 1.3% to $12.02 after the securities industry regulator demanded life insurer to refund $23 million to customers following an investigation into the group's life and general insurance businesses.