Australian indexes Lack Support, CBA Offering Attracts 50% Participation

Marcus Jacob
11 Sep, 2015
New York City

Australian market indexes closed down and trimmed weekly gains to 0.7%. Commodities eased. Commonwealth Bank only received 50% participation in its $3 billion rights offering. Newcrest Mining struggles with safety issues.

[R]5:30 PM Sydney, Australia – Australian market indexes closed down and trimmed weekly gains to 0.7%. Commodities eased. Commonwealth Bank only received 50% participation in its $3 billion rights offering. Newcrest Mining struggles with safety issues.[/R]

Australian market indexes sold off after stocks in Shanghai failed to offer any upside catalysts and investors focused on the negatives in Chinese economy.

Australian dollar closed at 70.63 U.S. cents and in stock trading turnover declined to 726 million shares worth $4.6 billion.

At close, the ASX 200 Index decreased 23.90 or 0.5% to 5,071.10 and the broader All Ordinaries Index slumped 119.90 to 5,117.

For the week, ASX 200 gained 0.7%.

In commodities trading, gold added US$3 to US$1,111 an ounce and Brent crude future for immediate month delivery slipped 51 cents to US$48.38 a barrel.

Australian Stock Movers

Commonwealth Bank of Australia was halted at $75.13 and the banking and financial services provider raised $1.5 billion in a rights offering at a price of $71.50 per share.

The bank in a retail offering only managed to raise 50% of its target of $3 billion.

The bank is looking to raise $5.1 billion in capital ahead of new capital requirements.

Doray Minerals Limited jumped 2.4% to 42 cents after the gold producer said revenues in the year ending in June soared 21.2% from a year ago to $134.1 million from $110.6 million.

Net in the year swung to profit $19 million compared to a loss of $5.65 million and diluted earnings per share swung to 9.12 cents from a diluted loss per share of 3.78 cents.

The miner said gold production increased 15% to 88,736 ounces and forecasted to double the production by fiscal 2017 after the development of Mutiny’s Deflector Gold-Copper project.

Newcrest Mining Limited slipped 2.4% to $10.92 after the gold miner said operations at its New South Wales-based Cadia gold mine will be resumed “over the coming few days” after the mine technician was killed on September 6.

However, operation at Ridgeway mine will remain suspended until the implementation of additional safety measures, after the third fatality at operations this year.

The local government approved to lift the upper limit of gold and copper processing plant capacity to 32 million tons from 27 million tons per annum.