Australian Stocks Jump 1.9%, Aussie Dollar Under Pressure

Marcus Jacob
14 Jul, 2015
New York City

Australian market indexes soared and Aussie dollar bounced around the low of year as investors shift focus to regional developments and Chinese stock market and its impact on the commodities prices.

[R]5:30 PM Sydney – Australian market indexes soared and Aussie dollar bounced around the low of year as investors shift focus to regional developments and Chinese stock market and its impact on the commodities prices.[/R]

Australian market indexes soared nearly 2% and the Aussie dollar bounced around the low of the year as investors remained focused on Chinese stock market and next set of policy announcements.

Australian dollar closed at 74.28 U.S. cents and in stock trading turnover rose to 642 million shares worth $4.4 billion.

The dollar bounced from the low of 73.90 U.S. cents after the business confidence index in June increase 2 points to 10 and business conditions rose 5 points to 11 according to the National Australia Bank survey.

At close, the ASX 200 Index jumped 104.20 or 1.9% to 5,577.40 and the broader All Ordinaries Index increased 101.50 to 5,561.90.

In commodities trading, gold slid US$9 to US$1,155 an ounce and Brent crude fell 53 cents to close at US$57.32 a barrel.

IPO

Medlab Clinical Limited slumped 2.4% to 20 cents after the early phase drug developer priced its stock at 20 cents.

The stock opened at 20.5 cents and closed at 20 cents.

Australian Stock Movers

CSR Limited jumped 2.9% to $3.60 after the building products maker reported trading revenues in the year ending in March surged 16% to $2 billion from $1.75 billion in a year ago period.

Net profit in the year climbed 43% to $125.5 million compared to $88.1 million and earnings per share increased to 24.9 cents from 17.5 cents in the same period a year ago.

Sedgman Limited soared 14.8% to 77.5 cents after the mining services provider forecasted net profit for the year in the range of $16 million to $17 million compared to reported net loss of $7.7 million in a year ago period.

During the year, the company secured engineering, procurement and construction contract worth about $292 million and renewed the operational contracts at Mount Isa, Agnew and Sonoma.

Westpac Banking Corporation increased 1.9% to $33.61 after the banking and financial services provider completed the sale of its operations in the Cook, Samoa and Tonga of Pacific Island nations to the Bank of South Pacific Limited for about $91 million.