Second Day Advance in Australia Following a Rate Cut

Marcus Jacob
04 Feb, 2015
New York City

Australian market indexes gained for the second day in a row after RBA cut rates unexpectedly. Resource stocks advanced after commodities prices rebounded and oil traded at one-month high. Westfield sold some of its U.S. properties.

[R]5:30 PM Sydney – Australian market indexes gained for the second day in a row after RBA cut rates unexpectedly. Resource stocks advanced after commodities prices rebounded and oil traded at one-month high. Westfield sold some of its U.S. properties.[/R]

Australian stocks advanced for the second day in a row after the unexpected rate cut. Banks led the gainers and resource stocks also gained after commodities prices rebounded and oil jumped to one-month high.

ASX 200 Index climbed 69.90 or 1.2% to 5,777.30 and broader All Ordinaries Index jumped 67.50 to 5,733.70.

In commodities trading, gold dropped US$9 to US$1,265 an ounce and light crude oil jumped $3.48 to US$53.05 a barrel.

Brent crude slipped $1.42 to close at US$56.49 a barrel.

Australian Stock Movers

Echo Entertainment Group Ltd declined 2.1% to $4.14 after the leisure and entertainment service provider reported revenues in the first-half ending in December climbed 25.6% to $109 billion from $867.8 million a year ago period.

Net profit in the period surged 110.6% to $97.1 million compared to $46.1 million and diluted earnings per share jumped to 11.8 cents from 5.6 cents in the same period a year ago.

Downer EDI Limited climbed 5.2% to $4.49 after the engineering construction service provider secured locomotive maintenance and fleet management services contract of about $1 billion for 10 years from interstate rail freight operator Pacific National of Australia.

Ramelius Resources Limited dropped 3.7% to 13 cents after the mining company forecasted revenues for the first-half ending in December of about $67 million and pre-tax profit of about $5.7 million compared to pre-tax loss of $81.1 million a year ago period.

Westfield Corp Ltd slipped 1.5% to $10.08 after the shopping centre operator today announced that it sold stakes of 47.4% in three U.S. malls to O''Connor Capital Partners and signed an agreement with the private real estate developer.