Australian Stock Market Report – Afternoon - 5-16-13

AFTERNOON REPORT

(5pm AEST)

The Australian share market was sold off for a second consecutive session today, despite new record highs on Wall Street and European shares closing at five year highs.

Mining stocks bore the brunt of the damage, with gold stocks in particular under pressure as the price of the precious metal eased below US$1400 an ounce. Newcrest Mining (NCM) shares eased by more than five per cent to eight year lows.

Mining services companies were also hit hard. Diversified group UGL Limited (UGL) which yesterday issued a profit warning fell a further five per cent while Bradken (BKN) was off almost eight per cent.

Virgin Australia (VAH) shares fell 17.4 per cent to 38c after issuing a profit downgrade after the bell yesterday.

Graincorp (GNC) came through with its first half numbers, reporting a fall in net profit to $88.2 million. GNC will pay an interim dividend of 20c per share, along with a special dividend of 5c. GNC shares closed steady today at $12.75.

CommSec research released today shows New South Wales dominates the list of low jobless regions in Australia. Last month NSW had seven of the 15 regions with the lowest rates of unemployment in the nation. On top was the Sydney Northern Beaches with a jobless rate of just 2.1 per cent. Over the past year the jobless rate in the region has averaged 3.0 per cent. Next lowest was Central Metropolitan Perth (2.3 per cent) from St-George Sutherland in Sydney (2.9 per cent).

On the market overall, a total of 1.9 billion shares were traded, worth $5.9 billion. 340 were up, 613 were down and 366 were unchanged.

At 4.30pm AEST the SFE 200 Futures Index was at 5173, down 28pts.

The Aussie dollar remains below parity with the greenback.

In the US tonight, data on consumer prices, housing starts and the Philadelphia fed index is released.

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