Australian Earnings Lift Indexes; Crown, Lend Lease, Mirvac, Sims in Focus

Marcus Jacob
23 Aug, 2013
New York City

Stocks in Australia closed higher and investors digested a flood of earnings. Billabong received a revised takeover offer from a consortium of investors. Crown Limited said annual net income increased 23%. Lend Lease annual income increased 10%.

[R]4:30 PM Sydney – Stocks in Australia closed higher and investors digested a flood of earnings. Billabong received a revised takeover offer from a consortium of investors. Crown Limited said annual net income increased 23%. Lend Lease annual income increased 10%.[/R]

Australian stocks closed higher for the day and on the week after a flood of earnings.

Australian dollar gained to 89.96 U.S. cents and in stock trading turnover rose to 1.04 billion shares worth $5.22 billion.

The ASX 200 index jumped 47.70 or 0.9% to close at 5,123.40 and the broader All Ordinaries climbed 48.50 to 5,115.20. For the week, ASX 200 rose 0.2%.

Stocks in Review

Rio Tinto jumped 89 cents to $59.93 and BHP rose 27 cents to $35.64.

Woodside Petroleum Limited gained 47 cents to $38.19.

Westpac rose 47 cents to $31.47 and National Australia Bank added 12 cents to $32.46.

Billabong International jumped 6% after the company received a revised offer of $325 million from a consortium of private equity investors. The consortium revised its offer third time and said its investment plan is superior to the debt-to-equity swap proposal from Altamont Capital and will leave the company shareholders with $145 million higher value.

Crown Limited soared 5.6% to $14.34 after the casino company said revenue in the year ending in June climbed 3.1% to $2.89 billion from $2.80 billion a year ago. Net profit for the year plummeted 22.9% to $395.8 million compared to $513.3 million a year earlier.

Lend Lease Corporation Limited increased 1.2% to $9.13 after the infrastructure developer said group revenues in the year ending in June jumped 5.7% to $12.21 billion from $11.55 billion a year earlier. Profit for the year climbed 10% to $551.6 million compared to $501.4 million a year ago.

Global construction backlog revenue for the year lifted to about $17.2 billion.

Mirvac Group gained 1.5% to $1.66 after the real estate investment developer stated revenue slid $1.57 billion from $1.75 billion a year earlier.

Net profit for the year plunged to $139.9 million compared to $416.1 million and diluted earnings per share rose to 10.9 cents from 10.7 cents a year ago.

Mirvac said the result was hit by write-downs of $273.2 million in Queensland and Western Australia projects.

Sims Metal Management Limited surged 8.2% to $9.64 after the metal recycling company reported revenues in the year ending in June declined 20.4% to $7.19 billion from $9.04 billion a year ago.

Net loss in the year narrowed $466.1 million compared to $622.5 million and diluted earnings per share dropped 228.1 cents from 302.4 cents a year earlier.