Australian Stock Market Report –Afternoon 11/26/13

Evening Report
(17:00 AEDT)

There was some tooing and froing from the market early in the day. Sellers got traction in the first hour of trade although by lunch time the index had recovered from its lows of the session and left sellers in its wake.

The ASX 200 opened the session 2 points lower, at its worst it was down by almost 8 points, at its best it was up 20 points; selling on the close saw the market lose ground to finish ahead by a modest 4 points.

Woolies (WOW) shares ended ahead by 0.3%. At the groups AGM the chairman defended the progress of the Masters, business saying the market was being impatient about a business that is only two years old. Masters lost $157 million in 2012/13, more than the $119 million forecast by the company. Woolworths announced its chief financial officer will step down after ll years in the job. Tom Pockett, who will retire next February, will be replaced by David Marr, who is currently the general manager of corporate finance.

Aristocrat Leisure (ALL) said its full year profit rose almost 17 % despite a slide in revenue. The group reported a net profit of $107 million for the 12 months to September 30, up from $91.7 million for the same period last year. Aristocrat said strong growth from its North American business and an increase in selling prices contributed to the result. Revenue fell 3.4 per cent to $808.7 million, due to fewer scheduled games releases in Japan. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Odell was optimistic about the next 12 months saying that whilst conditions will remain competitive across major markets, continued growth in NPAT growth over the 2014 full year, would be driven by improvement in operational performance across our key markets. The shares ended down

Brickworks (BKW) said a better year in 2014 is in prospect as housing construction recovers, boosting orders for materials. The group said profitability improved in the three months to the end of September, primarily because of a better performance from its Austral bricks and masonry businesses. The Managing Director said ´´We are beginning to see signs of a more broad based recovery in building activity, which is being reflected in increasing orders in most regions and divisions.´´ BKW shares rose more than 2%

Tonight in the US: Consumer Confidence, Case Schiller Home Price Index, Housing Starts, Building Permits.

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