Australian Jobless Rate Rises to 6%, Caltex Net Doubles

Marcus Jacob
09 Jul, 2015
New York City

Aussie dollar closed below 75 U.S. cents and markets return to calm after Chinese regulators succeeded in arresting the sustained fall in market indexes. Australian jobless rate increased to 6% in June. Caltex Australia said first-half profit more than doubled.

[R]5:30 PM Sydney – Aussie dollar closed below 75 U.S. cents and markets return to calm after Chinese regulators succeeded in arresting the sustained fall in market indexes. Australian jobless rate increased to 6% in June. Caltex Australia said first-half profit more than doubled. Telstra plans to invest additional $500 million in mobile network.[/R]

Australian market indexes rebounded following a reversal in market trading in Hong Kong and Shanghai after Chinese regulators took steps.

Market indexes in Shanghai jumped more than 5% and in Hong Kong rebounded more than 3% after Chinese regulators prevented institutions from selling stocks in companies with more than 5% stake.

In addition, regulators allowed banks to rollover loans linked to stocks, despite the recent market decline of more than 25% in the last one month.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in June was 6% an increase of 0.1 percentage points from the revised 5.9% in May, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said.

The number of people unemployed in June jumped 12,800 to 756,100.

The department added seasonally adjusted labour force participation rate increased less than 0.1 percentage points to 64.8% and the number of people employed jumped 7,300 to 11,768,600.

Australian dollar closed at 74.85 U.S. cents and in stock trading turnover gained to 777 million shares worth $5 billion.

At close, the ASX 200 Index edged up 1.50 to 5,471 and the broader All Ordinaries Index edged down 0.2 to 5,456.30.

In commodities trading, gold climbed US$14 to US$1,165 an ounce and Brent crude increased 0.75 cents to close at US$57.80 a barrel.

IPO

Refind Limited soared 30% to 26 cents after the cloud based services provider priced its stock at 20 cents.

The stock opened at 24.5 cents and closed at 26 cents.

Australian Stock Movers

Caltex Australia Limited slipped 1.4% to $32.89 after the petroleum retailer said profit-after-tax in the first-half ending in June climbed 130% to $375 million from $163 million in the same period a year ago.

The company said net debt as of June declined 13.5% to $715 million compared to $827 million a year ago period.

M2 Group Ltd slid 0.09% to $10.76 after the communications products and utility services provider intends to acquire majority stake in Aggregato Global

The company has already invested $4.9 million.

Northern Star Resources Ltd gained 0.5% to $2.21 after the gold producer recorded free cash flow of $183 million in the quarter ending in June after spending $50 million in exploration.

Telstra Corporation Ltd rose 0.3% to $6.18 after the telecommunication services provider’s chief executive Andy Penn said in next two year the company plans to increase investment by more than $500 million in its mobile network and by the end of June 2017 will invested more than $5 billion.