Australian Stocks Ease, Oil Search Lifts Annual Production Outlook

Marcus Jacob
05 Jun, 2014
New York City

Australian stocks traded lower and the Aussie dollar held firm near its high in the year so far. Oil Search lifted its annual production outlook. Graincorp Ltd plans to invest $200 million to enhance storage network.

[R]5:00 PM Sydney – Australian stocks traded lower and the Aussie dollar held firm near its high in the year so far. Oil Search lifted its annual production outlook. Graincorp Ltd plans to invest $200 million to enhance storage network.[/R]

Australian stocks opened lower and stayed below flat line throughout the session in Sydney today. Trading volume was light and investors awaited European Central Bank action to spur additional liquidity.

Australian dollar gained to 92.81 U.S. cents and stock market trading turnover nearly flat at 680 million shares worth $3.81 billion.

ASX 200 index fell 7.90 or 0.1% to 5,436.90 and the broader All Ordinaries slid 7.10 to 5,419.70.

Stocks in Review

Bank of Queensland Limited closed unchanged at $11.99 after the retail bank priced $300 million four-year floating rate loan that are transferable deposit and $200 million four-year fixed rate transferable deposit under its Australian Debt Instrument Program.

Cromwell Group slipped 1% to 98 cents and the property investment company plans to invest up to $7.5 million for a 50% stake in New Zealand property manger, Oyster Group.

Dick Smith Holdings Ltd closed unchanged at $1.93 after the electronic products retailer said online sales increased to 5% sales and targeted 10% in the next three years.

Graincorp Ltd fell 0.5% to $8.45 after the storage and logistic company plans to invest $200 million to improve the efficiency of its grain storage network.

Oil Search Limited gained 1.8% to $9.52 after the oil and gas explorer revised higher total production for the year between 17 million barrels of oil equivalent and 20 million barrels of oil equivalent, up from 14.5 million barrels of oil equivalent to 17.5 million barrels of oil equivalent.