Australian Stock Market Report – Afternoon 4-4-13

AFTERNOON REPORT
(5pm AEDT)

Local stocks followed Wall Street and European markets into the red today, as political jitters over North Korea and weak global economic data weighed on sentiment. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) closed near its lows of the day, down almost 1%.

In late afternoon trade, the Bank of Japan announced an aggressive stimulus measure of JPY60-70 trillion worth of bond buying. The stimulus announcement says the USD/JPY surge and turned the Nikkei into positive territory. The Nikkei had been as low as 1.6% today.

Locally, a big slump in the gold price pressured gold stocks. Newcrest Mining (NCM) fell 5.2% to $18.49, while a lower iron ore price saw Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) lose another 3.3% to $3.55.

Shares in surf wear retailer Billabong (BBG) have been halted from trade indefinitely as the retailer continues takeover talks with two potential suitors who had offered $1.10 per share. BBG last traded at 73c and was due to resume trade today. It's expected if the suitors decide to proceed with a takeover, the bid will be significantly reduced.

In economic data today, retail trade rose by 1.3% in February after rising by an upwardly-revised 1.2% in January (previously 0.9%). Annual spending growth rose from 3.2% to 4.6%. CommSec Economist Savanth Sebastian said of the data, "The latest retail sales data is clearly encouraging. The low interest environment, coupled with buoyant share markets, and ongoing improvement in consumer confidence is supporting retail activity."

On the market overall, a total of 1.9 billion shares were traded, worth $4.6 billion. 226 were up, 792 were down and 323 were unchanged.

The Australian dollar is worth US104.4c, £0.619 and €81.36c.

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