Australian Indexes Fall 1%, Origin Energy Nears $2.5 B Capital Raising

Marcus Jacob
02 Oct, 2015
New York City

Australian market indexes declined more than 1% and closed flat after a week of volatile trading. Origin Energy completed its institutional tranche of $2.5 billion capital raising.

Australian Indexes Fall 1%, Origin Energy Nears $2.5 B Capital Raising

[R]5:30 PM Sydney, Australia – Australian market indexes declined more than 1% and closed flat after a week of volatile trading. Origin Energy completed its institutional tranche of $2.5 billion capital raising.[/R]

Australian market indexes declined more than 1% and the market indexes closed nearly unchanged after a week of volatile trading.

On the economic front, the seasonally adjusted total retail sales in August jumped 0.4% to $24.4 billion following the 0.1% fall in July, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said.

Australian dollar closed at 70.35 U.S. cents and in stock trading turnover declined to 584 billion shares worth $3.7 billion.

At close, the ASX 200 Index slumped 60.10 or 1.2% to 5,052 and the broader All Ordinaries Index dropped 54.90 to 5,089.20.

For the week, ASX 200 increased 0.3%.

In commodities trading, gold declined US$13 to US$1,113 an ounce and Brent crude future for immediate month delivery fell 56 cents to US$48.25 a barrel.

Australian Stock Movers

APA Group slipped 2.1% to $8.59 after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission opposed group''s plan to acquire Victoria-based rivals Iona gas plant.

The regulatory authority said APA may increase the rents on infrastructure and access information, if it buys a $1 billion Iona storage plant.

Origin Energy Ltd was halted at $6.10 after the oil and gas explorer successfully completed offering to raise $1.35 billion at the offer price of $4.

Retail entitlement offer will open on October 13 at the same offer price of $4 set for institutional offering and is expected to raise the remaining $1.2 billion of the $2.5 billion.

The proceeds will be used to pay down debt.

Payce Consolidated Limited was halted at $7.73 after the property developer said it had completed the acquisition of an 8.7 hectare industrial site in Wharf Road, Melrose Park worth about $144.5 million.