Confident Investors Ignore America And Snap Up Stocks
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday September 9, 2003
Falling employment in the US failed to rattle investors yesterday as they drove the local market to 14-month highs on the back of healthy job advertisements and strong commodity prices.
The ASX 200 rose 16.5 points to 3230.3 and the All Ordinaries rose 12.9 points to 3233 despite US non-farm payrolls falling 93,000 last month, the seventh fall in a row and the biggest decline since March.
``The market has a reasonable head of steam up and is confident that the US figures are probably a bit of an aberration . . . the medium term outlook there is quite strong," Intersuisse equities manager Andrew Sekely said.
In Australia, a 1.5 per cent rise in the number of newspaper job advertisements had little impact on newspaper stocks but was a good sign for the economy, CommSec senior analyst Craig James said.
``Employers only seek additional staff if they believe that business conditions are likely to improve in coming months, Mr James said.
``The rising trend of jobs being advertised is consistent with firmer business confidence, representing good news not just for job seekers but companies reliant on consumer spending," he said.
Shares in John Fairfax fell 1c to $3.25 ahead of its full-year results today, while West Australian Newspapers rose 2c to $5.98 and APN News & Media dipped 2c to $3.58.
Funds were spread across defensive and cyclical sectors as fund managers desperately tried to reduce their large cash holdings.
The big banks enjoyed double-digit gains as investors took profits in the insurance sector, which has been hovering around 12-month highs.
NAB rose 37c to $31.11, CBA added 42c to $28.22, Westpac climbed 23c to $16.30, ANZ rose 23c to $18.12 and St George was up 23c to $20.80.
Investors dumped AMP on the back of reports it was considering a $1.2 billion capital raising.
Fears that a capital raising would further dilute the already weakened share price prompted investors to drive the stock down 18c to $6.65.
IAG fell 6c to $3.91, Axa fell 4c to $2.68 and Promina fell 4c to $2.91.
Mining heavyweights BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto extended gains after copper prices touched 2 1/2-year highs.
BHP rose 12c to $11.29 and Rio 17c to $34.45.
At the other end of the market, artificial heart maker Ventracor climbed 10c to $2.81 after the company said the second patient to receive the VentrAssist device had been upgraded to a stable condition.
Shareholders in Jupiters, UNiTAB, Hunter Hall and Candle received their
dividends which exaggerated share price moves in those companies. Jupiters fell
10c to $6.50 ex 12c, UNiTAB fell 22c to $6.38 ex 16c and Candle fell 16c to
$1.20 ex 2.5c.
MONEY $A/US ? 64.78 +0.35 TWI 57.8 +0.4 90-day bank bills 4.875 +0.005 3-year bonds 5.140 -0.080 10-year bonds 5.470 -0.125 YESTERDAY'S MOVES Rises 701 Falls 539 Steady 305 Sep SPI 3230.0 +19.0 ASX 200 3230.3 +16.5 Financials 4005.8 +34.7 Industrials 3515.0 +11.4 Energy 4385.4 +11.1 Volume Value 1.006bn 1.945bn WINNERS Austal +7.29% Lion Selection 6.25 Lihir Gold 5.81 Vision Systems 4.96 Jubilee Mines 4.26 Portman 4.05 Ventracor 3.69 Village Roadshow 3.52 DCA Group 3.10 Sigma 2.95 LOSERS Great Sth Plantation -5.52% Australian Pipeline 4.75 Burns Philp 4.29 Novogen 3.92 Unitab 3.33 Austereo 3.31 Bank of Qld 3.27 Leighton Holdings 3.23 AMP 2.64 CSR 2.37
© 2003 Sydney Morning Herald