Australian Indexes Trade Lower; Lend Lease and Westfiled in Focus

Marcus Jacob
14 Nov, 2014
New York City

Australian market indexes struggled in the session but managed to close higher but indexes declined in the week following weak oil and iron ore price. Lend Lease reaffirmed its outlook at the annual general meeting. Westfield, the global operator of malls said annual retail sales increased 4.4%.

[R]5:30 PM Sydney – Australian market indexes struggled in the session but managed to close higher but indexes declined in the week following weak oil and iron ore price. Lend Lease reaffirmed its outlook at the annual general meeting. Westfield, the global operator of malls said annual retail sales increased 4.4%.[/R]

Australian stocks traded higher after spending most of the session in the negative zone.

Australian dollar closed at 86.86 U.S. cents and in stock-trading turnover declined to 548 million shares worth $3.59 billion.

ASX 200 Index gained 11.60 or 0.2% to 5,454.30 and broader All Ordinaries Index rose 10.30 to 5,433.80. For the week, ASX 200 dropped 1.7%.

In commodities trading, gold decreased US$5 to US$1,158 an ounce and light crude oil declined $2.97 to US$74.21 a barrel.

Australian Stock Movers

Lend Lease Group gained 0.6% to $15.94 and the property and infrastructure developer reaffirmed at the annual general meeting the development pipeline of about $38 billion of which $16 billion is from construction revenue.

The company offered an optimistic outlook and reported strong residential pipeline in London with the addition of new projects at Deptford and Chiswick, adding in excess of 1,000 apartments with a total backlog above 5,000 units.

Westfield Corp Ltd increased 1.3% to $8.27 after the shopping malls developer said specialty retail sales in the year ending in September climbed 4.4% and future project are under development for about $2.5 billion.

Outside Australia, the company’s major projects are in California, U.S.A., London, U.K. and Italy worth $3.35 billion and projects will be complete in next two years.

The company is also undertaking pre-development activity of about $9 billion.