Australian Index Drops 0.9%

Marcus Jacob
16 Nov, 2015
New York City

Sydney benchmark index declined the most in nearly two months and fell below 5,000. Mining stocks and gold producers jumped while Rio Tinto fell 2.5%. The seasonally adjusted total vehicle sales in October declined 3.6%.

[R]5:30 PM Sydney, Australia – Sydney benchmark index declined the most in nearly two months and fell below 5,000. Mining stocks and gold producers jumped while Rio Tinto fell 2.5%. The seasonally adjusted total vehicle sales in October declined 3.6%.[/R]

Markets in Sydney opened lower after deadly terror attacks in Paris on Friday reverberated around the world and the indexes closed down 0.9%.

ASX 200 index declined the most since last September and dropped below 5,000 and mining stocks and gold producers jumped while Rio Tinto fell 2.5%.

The banks, energy companies and mining stocks slumped but stock in commodities increased as oil price rallied more than 1%.

The seasonally adjusted total vehicle sales in October declined 3.6% to 96,925 units from 100,537 in September but jumped 4.2% to 92,995 in a year ago month, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said.

Passenger vehicles sales in the month plunged 7.6% to 41,321 units and sports and utility vehicle sales slumped 2.6% to 36,552 while sales in other vehicles soared 4% to 19,052 units from previous month.

Australian dollar ease to 71.13 U.S. cents and in stock trading turnover slid to 665 million shares worth $4.2 billion.

At close, the ASX 200 Index slumped 47.50 or 0.9% to 5,003.80 and the broader All Ordinaries Index dropped 47.30 to 5,064.50.

In commodities trading, gold added US$1 to US$1,094 an ounce and Brent crude future for immediate month delivery edged up 24 cents to US$44.71 a barrel.

Australian Stock Movers

Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd surged 14.6% to $1.50 after the liquefied natural gas exporter announced contract pricing for its U.S. LNG export subsidiary after received the regulatory approvals.

Earlier, the proposal to build the first port was rejected by the New York government for liquefied natural gas in the state.

Macquarie Atlas Roads Limited slipped 1% to $3.85 after the toll road developer and operator agreed to sell lease rights of Chicago toll-road operator Skyway Concession Co. for $2.8 billion to Canada-based Pension Plan Investment Board.

Tabcorp Holdings Limited fell 0.7% to $4.39 after the gambling and entertainment group and the regulated lotteries operator Tatts Group Limited reported they are not in merger talks.

Tatts Group said they were unable to agree on mutually acceptable terms.

Tatts Group Limited stock jumped 3.3% to $4.05.