Australian Indexes Advance, Qantas Redeploys Western Assets

Marcus Jacob
23 Oct, 2015
New York City

Australian market indexes closed higher and the ASX 200 index jumped 1.5% for the week. Qantas Airways plans to reduce capacity and adjust cost base in Western Australian market as the mining boom unwinds. OZ Minerals lifted copper production outlook.

[R]5:30 PM Sydney, Australia – Australian market indexes closed higher and the ASX 200 index jumped 1.5% for the week. Qantas Airways plans to reduce capacity and adjust cost base in Western Australian market as the mining boom unwinds. OZ Minerals lifted copper production outlook.[/R]

Australian market indexes traded higher and for the week closed in a positive zone on the back of advances in international markets.

Australian dollar closed at 72.48 U.S. cents and in stock trading turnover gained to 841 billion shares worth $5.2 billion.

At close, the ASX 200 Index jumped 87.80 or 1.7% to 5,351.60 and the broader All Ordinaries Index increased 88.50 to 5,388.10.

For the week, ASX 200 increased 1.5%.

In commodities trading, gold rose US$2 to US$1,169 an ounce and Brent crude future for immediate month delivery added 40 cents to US$48.48 a barrel.

Australian Stock Movers

Amalgamated Holdings Limited soared 4.9% to $14.18 after the cinema theatres and hotels operator said net profit in the first-quarter ending in September surged 37.2% to $64.3 million from a year ago period.

AMP Limited increased 2.2% to $5.95 after the retail bank and investment manager said net cash flows in the third-quarter ending in September dropped to $241 million from $476 million in the same period a year ago.

However, asset under management in the quarter slipped 3% to $111.1 billion from $114 billion in second-quarter but jumped 6% to $105.2 billion in the same period a year ago.

Beach Energy Ltd jumped 3% to 68.5 cents after the oil and gas explorer agreed to acquire smaller rival Drillsearch Energy Ltd in an all-stock deal to form $1.17 billion energy group, the biggest domestic onshore oil producer and a significant natural-gas supplier.

Drillsearch Energy Ltd stock surged 25.9% to 82.5 cents.

CIMIC Group Limited gained 2.3% to $26.50 after the engineering construction company and the Habtoor Leighton Group secured contract worth about $181 million in Dubai.

OZ Minerals Limited surged 5.6% to $4.17 after the mining company said total copper production in third-quarter jumped 28% to 33.52 metric tons from previous quarter while gold production declined to 23,817 ounces from 24,790 ounces in the second-quarter.

The miner lifted its full-year copper output forecast to between 126,000 tons and 131,000 tons from the earlier estimated range of 110,000 tons to 120,000 tons.