Australian Stock Market Report – Afternoon 11/15/13

EVENING REPORT
(5pm AEDT)

The Australian sharemarket made it two days of gains in a row, with the All Ordinaries Index rising by 0.8 per cent. Over the past two sessions, local stocks surged by 1.5 per cent, spurred by Janet Yellen's testimony before Congress. It seems very unlikely that the US central bank will be tapering its US$85 billion worth of stimulus in 2013, which has pushed shares and the Australian dollar higher.

Dick Smith is set to float on the Australian sharemarket mid-December. The business was sold by Woolworths (WOW) to a private equity firm called Anchorage in September 2012 for just $20 million. It is expected to raise around $345 million. This would value Dick Smith at around $520.3 million. Consumer confidence has picked up, Christmas is around the corner and the retail sector has been a star performer this calendar year.

Warrnambool Cheese and Butter (WCB) was in a trading halt today, as there are three businesses in the middle of a bidding war for the dairy processor. Canadian food giant, Saputo is set to make a revised takeover bid for WCB, which has helped WCB rise by 7.5 per cent this week and double in value over just three months.

Channel Ten (TEN) surged by 5.8 per cent today, as it held its investor day, however is still down by 5.2 per cent since January 2013.

A number of businesses issued quarterly, half yearly and full year profit results this week. Building products companies James Hardie (JHX) and CSR were two of the standouts along with Orica (ORI). JHX surged by 12.5 per cent this week, ORI jumped by 19 per cent gained 13.5 per cent.

There was plenty of economic news out this week- including consumer and business confidence together with a quarterly update on wages. According to the data, consumers are more confident in November than they were a month ago while businesses are more pessimistic. Wages rose at a slower than expected pace, which would make the Reserve Bank feel comfortable to remain on the sidelines.

Tonight, European finance ministers from EU member states will be meeting in Brussels while in the US, a manufacturing index and import/export data will be out.

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