Australian Indexes Extend Losses

Marcus Jacob
06 Aug, 2014
New York City

Australian stocks closed lower and investors focused on the international commodities prices. The Aussie dollar traded above 93 U.S. cents and gold and oil traded lower in Sydney.

[R]5:00 PM Sydney, Australia – Australian stocks closed lower and investors focused on the international commodities prices. The Aussie dollar traded above 93 U.S. cents and gold and oil traded lower in Sydney.[/R]

Australian stocks closed lower and struggled to pare most of the losses in the afternoon session and investors focused on commodities prices in international markets.

Investors digested latest service sector index data from China, euro zone, U.K. and the U.S. China’s service sector index growth failed to meet expectations and the euro zone index showed a shrinkage but the indexes in the U.S. and U.K. rose more than expected.

Australian dollar closed at 93.08 U.S. cents and stock trading turnover slipped to 635 million shares worth $4.16 billion.

ASX 200 index slid 6.60 to 5,512 and the broader All Ordinaries fell 7.50 to 5,504.

Stocks in Review

Adelaide Brighton Ltd slipped 0.8% to $3.58 after the cement and premixed concrete producer acquired two integrated aggregates and premixed concrete businesses for $174 million renewed a long term cement supply deal in South Australia and Queensland.

Ardent Leisure Group after trading halt at $2.51 the gym operator agreed to acquire Fitness First clubs in Perth for $32.5 million. With this acquisition, the company will be the largest non-franchised gym operator in Australia and increased the number of its gyms to 15 in Western Australia and 77 across the nation.

The company plans to upgrade the newly acquired Fitness clubs and invest additional $5 million. The acquisition is expected to close in the next four weeks.

Spotless Group Holdings Ltd fell 0.8% to $1.85 after the outsourced service provider secured contract to manage Australian Department of Defence facilities in the Queensland and Southern New South Wales Defence regions worth $200 million.

The company said the initial contract term is for six years with an option to renew for up to four years with yearly revenue of contract is about $200 million.