Australia Halts Five-Day Rally, Glencore Asset Sale Weighs

Marcus Jacob
12 Oct, 2015
New York City

Australian market indexes declined after a five-day rally. In light trading, market indexes turned lower on weak resource stocks. Gold traded at a seven-year high. Glencore looks for more asset sale and use proceeds to lower debt.

[R]5:30 PM Sydney, Australia – Australian market indexes declined after a five-day rally. In light trading, market indexes turned lower on weak resource stocks. Gold traded at a seven-year high. Glencore looks for more asset sale and use proceeds to lower debt.[/R]

Australian market indexes halted a five-day rally and investors focused on the upcoming earnings season.

Personal and commercial lending finance commitment in August decreased 2.5% after adjusting for seasonal factors to $7.18 billion.

Australian dollar closed at 73.37 U.S. cents and in stock trading turnover dropped to 674 billion shares worth $4.2 billion.

At close, the ASX 200 Index slipped 46.80 or 0.9% to 5,232.90 and the broader All Ordinaries Index decreased 41.80 to 5,267.40.

In commodities trading, gold jumped US$4 to US$1,159 an ounce and Brent crude future for immediate month delivery added 9 cents to US$52.74 a barrel.

Australian Stock Movers

Glencore Plc the Switzerland-based mining company today announced that its plans to sell two copper mines in Cobar, New South Wales of Australia and Lomas Bayas open-pit operation in northern Chile.

The asset sale is expected to raise between $600 million and $1 billion and the resource conglomerate is looking to lower its net debt to $20 billion from the current $30 billion by the end of next year.

In September, Glencore said Katanga mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo will suspend copper and cobalt production till the year 2018. Glencore controls 74% stake in the mining company.

Santos Ltd slipped 0.7% to $5.93 after the oil and gas producer today announced its plan to eliminate 200 jobs to save $100 million in Cooper Basin activities during the next three years.

Most of the job cuts are in the Adelaide-based office.

Rio Tinto Limited fell 0.7% to $54.81 after the mining company said it will invest $60 million in exploration in Citadel-based smaller miner Antipa Minerals Limited’s gold and copper project in Western Australia.

Transurban Group decreased 0.5% to $9.81 and the toll road network operator said toll revenues in the third-quarter ending in September soared 17% to $427 million from a year ago period.

Average daily traffic on Sydney and Brisbane routes jumped 10.3% and 10.5% respectively in the period from a year ago quarter.