Australian Indexes Extend Weekly Gain, Bradken Rejects Takeover Offer

Marcus Jacob
10 Apr, 2015
New York City

Australian market indexes extended weekly gains and Aussie dollar closed unchanged. Seasonally adjusted home loans approvals in February increased 1.2% from the previous month. Bradken rejected the latest takeover proposal.

[R]5:30 PM Sydney – Australian market indexes extended weekly gains and Aussie dollar closed unchanged. Seasonally adjusted home loans approvals in February increased 1.2% from the previous month. Bradken rejected the latest takeover proposal.[/R]

Australian market indexes extended gain in 4-day week and resource stocks led the gainers.

On the economic front, seasonally adjusted home loans approvals in February jumped 1.2% to 53,614 from the previous month, Australian Bureau of Statistics said.

The share of first-time home buyer as a percentage of total residential loans rose to 13.7% in February from 13.6% in January 2015.

Australian dollar closed at 76.87 U.S. cents and in stock trading turnover declined to 495 million shares worth $3.5 billion.

At close, the ASX 200 Index gained 36.20 or 0.6% to 5,968.40 and the broader All Ordinaries Index increased 33.90 to 5,935.40. For the week, ASX 200 rose 0.7%.

In commodities trading, gold added US$1 to US$1,196 an ounce and Brent crude edged up 0.04 cents to close at US$56.61 a barrel.

Australian Stock Movers

Altium Limited soared 5% to $4.79 after the software developer for electronic products reported revenues in the third-quarter ending in March soared 10% to US$18.5 million from US$16.8 million in a year ago period.

The company said cash balance jumped 5% to US$61.9 million from US$59.1 million in second-quarter.

Bradken Limited jumped 3.9% to $2.40 after the mining engineering services provider rejected takeover offer of $2.50 cash per share from a private equity consortium.

Woodside Petroleum Limited climbed 2.3% to $34.90 after the oil and gas explorer completed agreement worth US$2.75 billion to acquire Australian Wheatstone LNG and Balnaves oil interests and Kitimat LNG project interests in Canada from the U.S.-based Apache Corporation.

Wesfarmers Ltd gained 1.6% to $44.40 after the supermarket retailer Coles unit was ordered by a federal court to pay $2.5 million for misleading freshness label on breads.