Incitec Pivot Bond Offering; Australian Index Up

Mayank Mehta
03 Dec, 2009
New York City

Australian stocks and dollar held firm. Incitec Pivot plans at least $500 million debt offering. Resource stocks advance as gold and other metals advance. Arrow Energy climbs on positive comments. Caltex Australia declines after an analyst downgrade.

[R]8:00 AM Sydney, Australia – Australian stocks and dollar held firm. Incitec Pivot plans at least $500 million debt offering. Resource stocks advance as gold and other metals advance. Arrow Energy climbs on positive comments. Caltex Australia declines after an analyst downgrade.[/R]

ASX 200 index in Australia increased 12.20 or 0.26% to 4,774.60 and of the stocks in S&P ASX 200 index, 98 increased, 80 declined and 22 were unchanged.

ASX Movers

PaperlinX Limited led the decliners in the S&P ASX 200 index with a loss of 3.9% followed by losses in DEXUS Property Group of 3.0%, in Nexus Energy Limited of 2.9%, in Macquarie CountryWide Trust 2.7% and in CFS Retail Property Trust 2.6%.

Incitec Pivot Limited led gainers in the S&P ASX 200 index with a rise of 6.8% followed by gains in Murchison Metals Limited 6.3%, in Perpetual Limited of 6.3% and in Arrow Energy Limited of 5.1%.

Other Movers

Arrow Energy Limited climbed 5.1% to A$4.10 after the gas explorer in Australia and Asia said that the early stages of company’s planned A$300 million exploration and appraisal program is progressing well.

BHP Billiton plc added 1.3% to A$42.47 as metal and energy prices.

Caltex Australia Limited dropped 2.2% to A$9.26 after the oil refiner was downgraded to “sell” from “hold” at Deutsche Bank AG.

Incitec Pivot Limited increased 6.8% to A$3.14 after the fertilizer maker said plans to sell this week $500 million of 10-year bonds in the United States.

Murchison Metals Limited rose 6.3% to A$2.01 after the mineral explorer issued 200,000 ordinary shares at A$1.25 per share upon exercise of options.

Nufarm Limited the agricultural chemical maker rose 3.2% to A$10.85.

PanAust Limited, the copper miner advanced 4.4% to A$0.58.

PaperlinX Limited the distributor and maker of printing fell 3.9% to A$0.49.

Perpetual Limited gained 6.3% to A$34.55 after the fund manager was upgraded to “buy” from “hold” at both Citigroup Inc.

Woodside Petroleum Ltd fell 0.8% to A$49.36 after the oil and gas producer said the Australian government yesterday gave the company and its four partners, BP, Chevron, Shell and BHP Billiton, a four-month deadline to agree on a plan for the project or lose leases for the gas fields.