Australian Construction Industry Growth Slows in September

Marcus Jacob
07 Oct, 2015
New York City

Australian market indexes lacked direction and closed higher in average trading. Construction industry survey showed a slight decline in growth in September. Insurance Australia Group announced the appointment of new chief executive.

[R]5:30 PM Sydney, Australia – Australian market indexes lacked direction and closed higher in average trading. Construction industry survey showed a slight decline in growth in September. Insurance Australia Group announced the appointment of new chief executive.[/R]

Australian market indexes opened higher and turned negative in most of the session and rebounded in the positive zone in the final hour of trading.

Construction industry survey showed activities in September continued to expand but at a slower pace than in August.

The index tracked by the Australian Industry Group and Housing Industry Association declined to 51.9 from 53.8 in August.

Australian dollar closed at 71.75 U.S. cents and in stock trading turnover rose to 783 billion shares worth $5.1 billion.

At close, the ASX 200 Index increased 30.50 or 0.6% to 5,197.90 and the broader All Ordinaries Index gained 29.40 to 5,228.40.

In commodities trading, gold jumped US$12 to US$1,149 an ounce and Brent crude future for immediate month delivery gained 55 cents to US$52.47 a barrel.

Australian Stock Movers

Aspen Group Limited gained 1.7% to $1.41 after the residential and vacation apartments developer agreed to acquire Adelaide Caravan Park in South Australia for about $9.25 million.

LBT Innovations Limited surged 23.8% to 13 cents after the diagnostic technology provider received “successful results” from pivotal clinical trial of its pioneering culture plate analysis technology in the U.S.

LBT was seeking approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a manual version of the culture plate analysis technology.

The trial results showed that the automated plate assessment system achieved more than 98% sensitivity in detecting disease-causing bacteria in urine.

Volkswagen Australia, the manufacturing unit of Germany-based Volkswagen AG confirmed that more than 91,000 cars in Australia are affected by the diesel emissions scandal engulfing the auto giant.

Paul Fletcher minister for major projects said ""The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is currently investigating whether Volkswagen and Audi exposed consumers to misleading.""

A spokeswoman for Audi Australia confirmed an additional 14,000 Audis were also fitted with the device.

VW chief Matthias Mueller said to a German newspaper that recall will start from January and finish by the end of 2016.