Australian Wholesale Inflation Slows, ResMed Rises

Marcus Jacob
31 Jul, 2015
New York City

Australian market indexes extended weekly gains and wholesale inflation in second quarter slowed on weaker energy prices. ResMed said fourth quarter sales increased 8%. Monadelphous won four contracts worth $130 million.

[R]5:30 PM Sydney, Australia – Australian market indexes extended weekly gains and wholesale inflation in second quarter slowed on weaker energy prices. ResMed said fourth quarter sales increased 8%. Monadelphous won four contracts worth $130 million.[/R]

Australian market indexes extended weekly gains on Friday and wholesale inflation index in the second quarter increased at a slower pace.

The producer prices index in second-quarter increased 0.3% followed by 0.5% increase in the first-quarter, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said today.

For the year, producer prices index jumped 1.1% compared to 0.7% increase in the previous quarter.

Australian dollar closed at 73.02 U.S. cents and in stock trading turnover jumped to 849 million shares worth $6.7 billion.

At close, the ASX 200 Index gained 29.70 or 0.5% to 5,699.20 and the broader All Ordinaries Index rose 28.60 to 5,681.70.

For the week, ASX 200 increased 2.2% and for the month jumped 3.2%.

For the year-to-date ASX 200 soared 5.3% and gained 2.1% from a year ago month.

In commodities trading, gold slid US$4 to US$1,085 an ounce and Brent crude fell 0.35 cents to close at US$52.96 a barrel.

IPO

Pepper Group Limited surged 26.9% to $3.30 after the lending services provider priced its stock at $2.60.

The stock opened at $3.05 and closed at $3.30.

Australian Stock Movers

Monadelphous Group Limited slipped 1.7% to $8.55 after the diversified services provider secured four new contracts for three-year to provide project maintenance and shutdown works for Queensland-based Alumina Limited worth about $130 million.

OceanaGold Corporation tumbled 14.7% to $2.38 after the gold producer agreed to acquire Canada-based Romarco Minerals Inc for more than $900 million.

Primary Health Care Limited fell 0.4% to $4.60 after the medical and healthcare services provider dell its stake in Vision Eye Institute Limited for about $34 million to reduce the debt and estimate to book pre-tax profit of $14 million on the sale.

ResMed Inc soared 6.4% to $8 after the medical devices maker reported revenues in the fourth-quarter ending in June climbed 8.4% to $1.68 billion form $1.55 billion in a year ago period.

Net profit in the year increased 2.2% to $352.9 million compared to $345.3 million and diluted earnings per share jumped to $2.47 from $2.39 in a year ago period.