Australian Index Jumps 4% in October, Record Net at NAB

Marcus Jacob
31 Oct, 2013
New York City

Australian stocks struggled to advance and for October market indexes jumped 4%. National Australia Bank reported record profit and increased its dividend. For the month, Sundance Resource soared 44% and Perseus Mining and Whitehaven Coal dropped 20%.

[R]4:30 PM Sydney – Australian stocks struggled to advance and for October market indexes jumped 4%. National Australia Bank reported record profit and increased its dividend. For the month, Sundance Resource soared 44% and Perseus Mining and Whitehaven Coal dropped 20%.[/R]

Australian stock opened sharply lower after the U.S. Federal Reserve failed to offer any clue regarding its current gigantic money printing program that buys $85 billion of U.S. Treasury a month.

Market sentiment recovered later in the afternoon but weaker than expected results from National Australia Bank kept bank stocks lower but still near record territory.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported building approvals for the construction of new homes jumped 14.4% in September from a year ago and above the 2.8% increase expectation.

Approvals surged 18.6% form a year ago month.

Australian dollar increased to 94.96 U.S. cents. In stock trading, turnover gained to 815 million shares worth $4.9 billion.

The ASX 200 index closed down at 5.40 to close at 5,425.50 and the broader All Ordinaries slid 5.10 to 5,420.30.

Stocks in Review

Rio Tinto jumped 55 cents to $63.99 and BHP slid 1 cent to $37.66. Woodside Petroleum Limited fell 2 cents to $38.82.

Westpac jumped 30 cents to $34.90.

Envestra Limited fell 0.9% to $1.12 after the natural gas distributor estimated annual profit to increase 30% even though its customers are using less gas from a decade ago.

Leighton Holdings Limited rose 0.6% to $17.91 after the engineering construction company secured $249 million contract to provide services to the Isaac Planes coal mine in Queensland''s Bowen Basin.

National Australia Bank Limited dropped 2.5% to $35.31 after the bank reported net interest income for the year ending in September rose 1.5% to $13.35 billion from $$13.24 billion a year ago.

Net profit for the year surged 33.8% to $5.46 billion compared to $4.08 billion and diluted earnings per share jumped to 227.5 cents from 174.4 cents a year earlier.

The bank said its bad debt provisions declined 26% $1.9 billion from $2.6 billion from a year ago period.

OceanaGold Corporation surged 16.4% to $1.74 after the Australia-based gold producer said revenue in the third-quarter ending in September climbed to $156.6 million from $91.1 million a year ago.

Net in the quarter swung to a profit $43.7 million compared to a loss of 0.4 million and diluted earnings per share swung to a 14 cents from a loss of break even a year earlier.

The company added EBITDA in the quarter jumped to $76.3 million from $42.5 million in the second quarters of 2013.

Woolworths Limited rose 0.1% to $34.90 after the supermarket operator said sales in the quarter ended on October 6 jumped 3% to $15.68 billion from the same period a year ago.

The company added sales from the home improvement division surged 28% and supermarkets and petrol outlets sales climbed 6.4%.