Australian Stock Market Report – Afternoon September 15, 2014

Asia Rides Wall Street Rebound, Firm Yen Hits Tokyo Stocks Reuters

It was a tough day for the Australian market after the falls on Wall Street on Friday night and the weak Chinese data released on Saturday there was little hope of a strong day for the Aussie markets. By the close the All Ordinaries Index was down 1% to 5,475.4 points

On Saturday Chinese industrial production numbers were released. Production rose by 6.9%, annually, in August, - but this was the slowest growth in 5½ years (December 2008) and below forecasts. This sent the Aussie dollar down from the start of trade today and added pressure on our stock market as well.

At the beginning of trade all sectors were in the red including the mining sector despite a falling Australian dollar which broke through AUD/USD 0.90 to a low of 0.8994. But the banks and property sector were still hit hard the big 4 banks all finished in the red off around 1.4% with Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited (BEN) down 1.3% to $12.43 at the end of trade.

Investment bank Macquarie Group (MQG) told the market today its expects its first-half net income to increase by around 30% (Y/Y) thanks to increased fees from its funds business. Today Mac group was one of the best performinglarge stocks on the market lifting by over 1% to $58.55. Scentre Group (SCG) which holds all Westfield's shopping centre assets fell 3.24% to $3.28 and Mirvac Group (MGR) was also down more than 3%

Developer Leighton Holdings' (LEI) contract unit Thiess said it had won a 2year extension to its NBN Co contract for installation, activation and maintenance of home and business premise connections to the National Broadband Network. The deal is said to be worth up to $183Million. But the share price fell away today after more rumours of price fixing by managers within the group saw its price fall over 4% in a negative market.

Rare metal miner Lynas Corporation Limited (LYC) today said it is still in negotiations over restructuring its $US225Million loan. This puts the company under pressure to raise funds to pay back the loan if an extension is not granted or deal resigned. LYC shares fell 13.33%. Even with the fall in base metals overnight and the Spot Iron Ore - China Import (Fines 62% Fe) near a 5 year low of US$82.00/dry tonne the material sector only fell by only 0.4%

Last night the US dollar oil price fell over 1% and started the Aussie session at US$92.00 a barrel by the close of trade today the oil price had lost more ground off US$1.11, or 1.2%, US$91.18 a barrel. Today Oil Search Limited (OSH) reduced its early losses but still finished down 0.5% and Santos Limited (STO) fell 1.78% but Liquefield Natural Gas Limited (LNG) moved higher up 3.25%.

The gold price started at a new 2014 low of US$1226.50 an ounce over the trading day we saw the gold price lifted by US$3, or 0.20%, to US$1,234 an ounce. Newcrest Mining Limited (NCM) fell 0.85% while Sandfire Resources NL (SFR) ended off 1.18%.

According to the Australian Institute of Petroleum, the national average Australian price of petrol rose by 1.6 cent per litre to 144.8 cents a litre in the week to September 14. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) new car sales fell by 1.8% in August and were down 3.5% on a year ago - the 12th straight annual decline.

The Australia dollar came under pressure but at the close of trade the Aussie dollar managed to pull itself back up to AUD/USD 0.900.

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