Australian Stock Market Report – Afternoon 8/13/13

AFTERNOON REPORT
(5pm AEST)

The Australian share market performed strongly again on Tuesday, as buying in key stocks the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) and CSL Limited (CSL) ahead of their earnings results tomorrow fuelled a rally. Positive sentiment across Asia also helped while Treasury's release of its Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Outlook (PEFO) failed to inspire investors when it was released on market open.

CBA shares rose by one per cent today while biopharmaceutical company CSL rose four per cent. Both companies release their FY13 results to the ASX tomorrow.

On the reporting calendar today, property developer Stockland Group (SGP) fell almost three per cent to $3.70 after blaming a write-down and weakness in the residential housing market for its drop in FY profit. FY13 NPAT fell almost 80 per cent to $104.6M. Shareholders will receive a final fully franked dividend of 12 cents per share.

A better day for mining products supplier Bradken (BKN), which saw its share price rise 12.4 per cent to $5.89 on a bullish FY14 outlook. BKN reported a 33.4 per cent drop in FY13 profit to $66.9M but will continue to cut costs in the current financial year to get back on track.

In economic data today, the NAB business confidence index weakened from minus 0.4 points to minus 2.8 points in July. The business conditions index improved from minus 7.5 points to minus 6.6 points. The survey was conducted from July 25-31, that is, before the Economic Statement was released, before the Federal Election was called and before the Reserve Bank cut interest rates to 53-year lows.

On the market overall, a total of 1.8 billion shares changed hands, worth $4.8 billion. 565 were up, 350 were down and 304 were unchanged.

At 4.30pm AEST the SFE 200 Futures Index was at 5116, up 56pts.

Ahead tonight, retail sales data is issued together with import and export prices.

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