Australian Stock Market Report – Afternoon 11/8/13

EVENING REPORT
(4.45pm AEDT)

The Australian share market closed lower on Friday, after Wall Street recorded its worst session since August a day after the US Dow Jones Index closed at record highs. Despite the successful debut of social media site Twitter, which soared 73% from its listing price, Wall Street closed lower.

The Australian share market followed suit, weighed down by falls from mining players and the fact Westpac (WBC) traded without rights to its dividend.

Westpac (WBC) will pay shareholders a fully franked dividend of 88c per share, plus a special dividend of 10c. WBC shares closed lower by 95c to $33.18.

It wasn't a great week for the financial sector, which closed lower by 0.6 per cent after the National Australia Bank (NAB) and ANZ (ANZ) also went ex-dividend this week.

Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) lost ground after the iron ore price came off following several sessions of gains.

Qantas (QAN) shares soared by 2 per cent to $1.25 after the airline announced plans to close its Avalon heavy maintenance facility in march next year due to the gradual retirement of its Boeing 747 fleet.

In economic news, the RBA has trimmed its economic growth forecast for the year to December 2014 by half a percentage point to the 2.0-3.0 per cent range. In its statement on monetary policy the central bank made it clear it's more open to rate cuts rather than rate hikes.

1.9 billion shares changed hands on the market today, worth $5 billion. 434 were up, 518 were down and 373 were unchanged.

At 4.30pm AEST the SFE 200 Futures Index was at 5408, down 21 points.

The Aussie dollar has ended the week lower, at US94.65c.

Ahead tonight, the October non-farm payrolls (jobs) report is issued.

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