Australian Stocks Down; Monadelphous Contract

Darlington Musarurwa
28 May, 2009
New York City

Global markets weakness dragged Australian stocks lower. The strength in oil and firm metal prices also supported the Aussie. Babcock & Brown Japan Property Trust surged after it sold one of its properties in Tokyo. Monadelphous Group was awarded A$170 million contract from Woodside Petroleum.

[R]7:00 PM Sydney, 5:00 AM New York – Global market weakness dragged Australian markets lower. The strength in crude oil price and firm metal prices also supported the Aussie. Babcock & Brown Japan Property Trust surged after it sold one of its properties in Tokyo. Monadelphous Group was awarded A$170 million contract from Woodside Petroleum.[/R]

Stocks in Australia fell on a weakness in global markets, a rise in crude oil prices and weak metal prices.

ASX 200 index in Australia decreased 45.40 or 1.19% closed to 3,755.70. The Australian dollar declined to 77.78 U.S. cents from 78.93 cents. The Aussie is expected to trade higher as global economies import more raw materials and minerals from Australia.

Gainers & Losers

BHP Billiton Limited declined 1.8% to A$34.02, Rio Tinto plc decreased 0.6% to A$63.99 and Santos Limited declined 0.6% to A$14.39.

Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd declined 1.2% to A$15.38 after it completed its rights offering of A$2.5 billion that will fund the purchase of Asian business of Royal Bank of Scotland.

Carnarvon Petroleum Ltd surged 6.3% to 68 cents after the company announced that initial tests indicate a presence of commercial quantity of oil off the coast of Thailand.

Monadelphous Group Ltd declined 1.8% to A$9.67 after the company was awarded $170 million contract associated with the A$12 billion Pluto LNG project in the North Western Australia managed by Woodside. The company has received a total of A$500 million contracts since October of 2008.

Babcock & Brown Japan Property Trust surged 23.7% to 36.5 cents after it sold its office building in Shinjuku Sanei for 11 billion yen. The company will book a gain of 6 billion yen or A$81 million. The price represents 33% premium to the 8.26 billion yen paid in 2005.

ASX 200 Index Movers

Macquarie Infrastructure Co LLC led the decliners in the ASX 200 index of 6.9% followed by losses in Mount Gibson Iron Ltd of 5.5%, in Transurban Group of 5.4%, in Virgin Blue Holdings Limited of 5.0% and in OZ Minerals Limited of 4.5%.

Babcock & Brown Japan Property Trust led gainers in the ASX 200 index with a rise of 23.7% followed by gains in Macquarie Country Wide Trust of 9.7%, in Goodman Group of 8.1% and Karoon Gas Australia Ltd of 7.3%.

Asian Markets Review

The Nikkei 225 Index in Tokyo closed higher 12.62 or 0.13% to 9,451.39, ASX 200 index in Australia decreased 45.40 or 1.19% closed to 3,755.70. The KL Composite index in Malaysia lower 6.44 or 0.61% closed to 1,041.24.The Markets of Hong Kong and China were closed today.

The Kospi Index in South Korea increased 30.15 or 2.21% to close at 1,392.17.SET index in Thailand closed higher 0.02 or 0.00% to 555.43 and JSE Index in Indonesia increased 10.03 or 0.53% closed to 1,902.88. The Sensex index in India increased 186.37 or 1.32% closed to 14,296.01.