Australian Indexes Extend Weekly Gain to 1.1%

Marcus Jacob
07 Mar, 2014
New York City

Australian market indexes gained and rose 1.1% in the week. Rio Tinto is preparing to make an offer for the remaining 49.2% stake in Turquoise Hill Resources. Israel continues to vacillate on its tax policy for natural gas exports and Woodside may drop its bid for an offshore field.

[R]5:00 PM Sydney – Australian market indexes gained and rose 1.1% in the week. Rio Tinto is preparing to make an offer for the remaining 49.2% stake in Turquoise Hill Resources. Israel continues to vacillate on its tax policy for natural gas exports and Woodside may drop its bid for an offshore field.[/R]

Stocks in Sydney trading closed higher and market indexes advanced at open and continued to scale higher.

Australian indexes gained more than 1% in the week on better than expected earnings, a slew of positive economic reports and higher confidence among investors. However, the weakness in the construction sector persisted.

The Australian Industry Group said Australia''s construction sector index declined to a six-month low of 44.2 in February compared to 48.2 in January.

Australian dollar jumped to 90.90 U.S. cents and stock market trading turnover declined to 736 million shares worth $4.3 billion.

The ASX 200 index rose 16.40 or 0.3% to 5,462.30 and the broader All Ordinaries increased 17.30 to 5,477.

For the week, ASX 200 gained 1.1%.

Stocks in Review

Rio Tinto added 36 cents to $64.94 and the media reports suggested that the miner is prepare to bid at $8 per share for the remaining stake of 49.2% of the Turquoise Hill Resources.

BHP rose 6 cents to $37.72.

Woodside Petroleum Limited jumped 40 cents to $38.66 and Leviathan offshore gas-field takeover could be at risk as the Ministry of Finance, Israel said unwilling to recommend taxation regime for LNG exports.

Westpac slipped 41 cents to $33.90 after the bank’s new venture Reinventure Group agreed to acquire equity stake of $5 million in SocietyOne.

99 Wuxian Ltd soared 5.9% to 36 cents after the mobile gaming company launched new mobile game platform and joint marketing initiatives.

Kimberley Diamonds Ltd slid 0.9% to $1.14 after the mining and exploration received record 17.2% increase in rough diamond sale price at $207.33 per carat auctions in Antwerp, Belgium.