Australian Indexes Fall 0.1%, Aussie Dollar at 42-Month Low

Marcus Jacob
17 Jan, 2014
New York City

Australian market indexes closed lower on Friday and declined 0.1% in the week. The Aussie dollar continued its steady slide and dropped to a 42-month low. Woodside Petroleum secured a site to build LNG processing facility in Canada.

[R]4:30 PM Sydney – Australian market indexes closed lower on Friday and declined 0.1% in the week. The Aussie dollar continued its steady slide and dropped to a 42-month low. Woodside Petroleum secured a site to build LNG processing facility in Canada.[/R]

Australian markets ended volatile session in red and the benchmark index for the week declined. The Aussie dollar continued its drift downward and declined to a 42-month low.

Australian dollar eased 88.17 U.S. cents and dropped to a 3-year low and in stock market turnover fell to 649 million shares worth $3.9 billion.

The ASX 200 index fell 3.20 to close at 5,305.90 and the broader All Ordinaries slid 3 to 5,316.40.

For the week, ASX 200 lowered 0.1%.

Stocks in Review

Rio Tinto gained 74 to $66.32. BHP jumped $1.07 to $37.89.

Woodside Petroleum Limited jumped 49 cents to $39.12 plans to develop liquefied natural gas project in British Columbia, Canada. The natural gas and oil explorer reported record production yesterday.

Westpac slumped 23 cents to $31.60.

Ainsworth Game Technology Limited rose 1 cent to $4.29 after the casino slot machines maker estimated profit-before-tax in the first-half to climb 50% to $45 million from a year earlier.

Paladin Energy Ltd surged 13.1% to 56 cents after the uranium miner reported revenue in the fourth-quarter of $101.75 million. The miner reaffirmed 2014 combined production between 8.3Mlb and 8.7Mlb U3O8.

The company also reached agreements with its lenders to refinance for Langer Heinrich and Kayelekera projects.

Super Retail Group Ltd plunged 14.2% to $10.79 after the specialty retailer reported lower than expected sales in the first-half ending on December 28 jumped 6% to $ 1.10 billion from a year ago.

The group expects net profit after tax for the period between $61 million and $62 million.