Australian Stock Market Report – Afternoon 5-6-13

AFTERNOON REPORT

(5pm AEST)

The Australian share market has started the week's trade on a positive note, following a positive lead from Wall Street at the end of last week on the back of better than expected US Jobs numbers.

The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) added 28.4pts or 0.6 per cent to close at 5133.8pts. The gain follows a 0.5per cent win over the course of last week.

Mining stocks did most of the grunt work today. Shares in Rio Tinto (RIO) added 3 per cent, while Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) was up by almost 6 per cent.

Westpac (WBC), the National Australia Bank (NAB) and ANZ (ANZ) all ended in the red.

Mirabella Nickel (MBN) was a strong performer, up 50 per cent to 16.5 cents.

Construction giant Leighton Holding (LEI) saw its share price rise by 2.2 per cent to $19.43 after announcing it expects to make a full year profit of up to $600 million after completing what it said was a pleasing first quarter.

In economic news today, retail trade fell by 0.4 per cent in March after rising by 1.3 per cent in both January and February. Annual spending growth eased from 4.6 per cent to 3.2 per cent.

According to the Australian Institute of Petroleum, the national average Australian price of unleaded petrol fell by 0.1 cents a litre to 137.8 c/l in the week to May 5, a 9-month low

The TD Securities/Melbourne Institute monthly inflation gauge rose by 0.3 per cent in April to be 2.1 per cent higher than a year ago.

Job advertisements fell by 1.3 per cent in April after a 0.5 per cent fall in March.

CommSec expects the RBA to leave interest rates on hold tomorrow.

1.4 billion shares changed hands today, worth $3.64 billion. 491 were up, 441 were down and 352 were unchanged.

At 5pm AEST the SFE 200 Futures was at 5153 up 26pts.

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