Australian Home Perimts Rise; Auto Sales Steady

Mayank Mehta
06 Jan, 2010
New York City

New home construction permits in November increased 5.9% from October and auto sales in December increased but declined 7.4% in the year to 937,000. Stocks traded sideways after energy and metals prices hovered near their recent highs.

[R]9:00 PM Sydney, Australia – New home construction permits in November increased 5.9% from October and auto sales in December increased but declined 7.4% in the year to 937,000. Stocks traded sideways after energy and metals prices hovered near their recent highs.[/R]

Stocks in Sydney increased slightly after world markets traded sideways. Energy and metals prices hovered near their recent highs and the dollar increased after the release of new home construction permits.

The ASX 200 index in Australia decreased 2.90 or 0.06% to 4,921.40 and of the stocks in S&P ASX 200 index, 99 increased, 85 declined and 16 were unchanged.

The Australian dollar edged up to 91.21 and the yields on the 10-year bonds were unchanged at 4.43%.

The approval permits for new home construction increased 5.9% in November from October. The data for the October month were revised to a decline of 1.8% according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The approvals surged 33.3% from a year ago.

Auto sales in December increased 88,708 after the government tax incentives encouraged the sale of small cars. Sales in 2009 decreased 7.4% to 937,328 from a year ago according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries Andrew Mckellar cited in the Australian Financial Review.

ASX Movers

Prime Infrastructure Holdings Ltd led the decliners in the S&P ASX 200 index with a loss of 6.9% followed by losses in Extract Resources Limited of 4.2%, in Harvey Norman Holdings Limited of 3.7%, in Murchison Metals Limited 3.6% and in Bunnings Warehouse Property Trust 3.4%.

Fortescue Metals Group Ltd led gainers in the S&P ASX 200 index with a rise of 13.0% followed by gains in Lynas Corporation Limited 9.2%, in Atlas Iron Limited of 7.8% and in Roc Oil Company Limited of 7.2%.

Other Movers

Australand Property Group climbed 1.9% to A$0.53.

BC Iron Limited fell 1.5% to A$1.28 after the explorer and developer of iron ore resources says it will defend any action taken by Tennant Metals as it seeks to cancel sales agreement.

BHP Billiton advanced 1.2% to A$43.82 after the mining company said that four partners in the Antamina copper and zinc mine in northern Peru had approved a A$1.29 billion operations expansion.

Lihir Gold Limited rose 1.4% to A$3.40.

Metal Storm Limited gained 4.1% to A$0.02 after the developer of weapons technology announced the issue of 44.44 million shares at A$0.018 a share and issue of 12.5 million shares at A$0.016 per share. The capital will be used to fund working capital. The company also issued 473,621 shares at A$0.02 per share to convert 70,166 convertible notes.

Rio Tinto Limited added 2.9% to A$78.58.

Telstra Corporation Limited dropped 1.7% to A$3.38 and the company prepares to bid for 4-G mobile wireless spectrum and is expected to separate its enterprise and retail divisions to meet the government’s demand.

Transurban Group the toll road operator slipped 1.9% to A$5.53.