Australian Job Creation in May Halts, Stocks Trade Lower

Marcus Jacob
12 Jun, 2014
New York City

Australian stocks traded lower on the weakness in resource sector. Investors have shifted focus to smaller companies but three most actively traded stocks. BHP, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac Banking led the most active list. Jobs creations slowed for the first time in four months.

[R]5:00 PM Sydney – Australian stocks traded lower on the weakness in resource sector. Investors have shifted focus to smaller companies but three most actively traded stocks. BHP, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac Banking led the most active list. Jobs creations slowed for the first time in four months.[/R]

Australian stocks slipped and the Aussie dollar after unemployment rate held steady for the third month in a row.

Australian Bureau of Statistics reported seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in May was unchanged at 5.8% for the third month in a row.

In May, the number of people employed fell by 4,800 and the participation rate declined to 64.6% from 64.7% in April.

Australian dollar rose to 93.91 U.S. cents and stock trading turnover increased to 670 million shares worth $3.9 billion.

ASX 200 index slipped 25.20 or 0.5% to 5,428.80 and the broader All Ordinaries fell 24.60 to 5,407.90.

Stocks in Review

Goodman Group decreased 0.8% to $5.15 after the property developer lifted its operating earnings guidance for the year by 7% to $600 million or 34.7 cents per share.

Newcrest Mining Limited slipped 0.9% to $9.71 after the gold, copper and silver producer forecasted gold production in fiscal 2015 in the range of 2.2 million ounces to 2.4 million ounces, about the same level as of fiscal 2014.

The company estimated copper production between 75,000 tons and 85,000 tons and silver production in the range of 2.2 million ounces to 2.4 million ounces.

Wesfarmers Ltd fell 0.5% to $41.61 after the supermarkets operator reported pre-tax profit for the year between $310 million to $335 million, excluding its insurance broking and premium funding business which is awaiting regulatory approval.

Worleyparsons Limited dropped 1.9% to $15.79 after the engineering services provider secured contract from Brazil-based Vale SA to continue to work on multi-billion dollar iron ore mining contract. Worleyparsons has been involved with the design phase of the project since 2010.