Australian Stocks Jump, Jobless Rate Ease to 6.3%

Marcus Jacob
12 Mar, 2015
New York City

In active trading, market indexes in Australia jumped on a slight rebound in resource stocks. Jobless rate in February declined to 6.3% from 6.4% in January. Whitehaven Coal completed $1.4 billion debt refinancing and extended repayment to 2019.

[R]5:30 PM Sydney – In active trading, market indexes in Australia jumped on a slight rebound in resource stocks. Jobless rate in February declined to 6.3% from 6.4% in January. Whitehaven Coal completed $1.4 billion debt refinancing and extended repayment to 2019.[/R]

Stocks in Sydney rebounded at the opening and the increase in market indexes was led by the advance in resource stocks.

Seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in February fell to 6.3% in February from 6.4% in January, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said today.

Australian dollar closed at 76.02 U.S. cents and in stock trading turnover slumped to 806 million shares worth $5 billion.

ASX 200 Index jumped 57 or 0.9% to 5,850.20 and broader All Ordinaries Index gained 52.70 to 5,816.

In commodities trading, gold declined US$7 to US$1,155 an ounce and light crude oil slid 5 cents to US$50.02 a barrel.

Brent crude increased 67 cents to close at US$58.21 a barrel.

Australian Stock Movers

Decmil Group Limited climbed 4.6% to $1.24 after the engineering construction company secured extra work contract worth about $40 million at Gina Rinehart controlled $10 billion Roy Hill Iron Ore Project of the Pilbara region.

Animoca Brands Corporation Limited surged 22.5% to 24.5 cents after the mobile game developer said monthly active users in February reached a record number of 9.7 million players and apps reached 125 million downloads at the end month.

Whitehaven Coal Limited jumped 2.9% to $1.60 after the coal producer struck a deal to refinance $1.4 billion of debt with a maturity of July 2019.