Australian Stock Market Report

MIDDAY REPORT (12.30pm AEDT)

The Australian sharemarket is up a touch, with the All Ordinaries index (XAO) up 0.5 pct or 20.3 pts to 4227.1 with most sectors edging higher at lunch. This is the third time this week that the market is improving, however is still down around 1 pct over the past five days. Investors are hesitating to over commit themselves to shares ahead of the European Union's Summit this weekend.

The French and German leaders were indicating earlier in the week that a comprehensive solution to the debt crisis was imminent. This was contradicted shortly after by Germany's finance minister who said it is unrealistic to expect a definitive solution to the euro zone debt crisis this weekend.

The miners are holding up quite well considering commodity prices overnight on the London Metal Exchange (LME) plummeted overnight on European concerns. BHP Billiton (BHP) is up 0.85 pct or 30 cents to $35.78 while the smaller RIO Tinto (RIO) is down 0.35 pct or 22 cents to $62.64. Keep in mind that the sector was one of the worst performing regions of the market yesterday, with losses of around 2.7 pct across the board.

Australia's second largest oil and gas producer, Woodside Petroleum (WPL) recorded a 27 pct rise in quarterly (July to September) profit thanks to higher commodity prices, however had a 12 pct fall in production. WPL shares are up 0.8 pct or 27 cents to $33.87.

The major banks ended mostly higher in the U.S but were hit very hard in European trade overnight. Shares in French banks Credit Agricole, BNP Paribas and Societe Generale slumped between 6 pct and 7.5 pct.

Locally, ANZ Banking Group (ANZ) is up 1.33 pct or 30 cents to $21.41, National Australia Bank (NAB) is 1.32 pct or 32 cents higher to $24.60, Westpac (WBC) is 0.51 pct or 11 cents stronger to $21.64 while Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is up 0.46 pct or 22 cents to $47.93.

Overnight, the Department of Labor released its weekly reading on the number of Americans who filed for unemployment benefits last week and came in higher than expected at 403,000. Despite the worse than expected figures, the claims have eased over the past few weeks.

Back in early 2009 during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), the reading was around 200,000 higher per week than what we have seen over the past few months. As a side note, between September 2008 and April 2009 following the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers, U.S stocks fell by 30 pct. The unemployment rate also rose from 5.5 pct to 9.5 pct over a 12 month period in the United States.

Following the start of daylight savings at the start of October, major Asian markets will be trading between the hours mentioned below until April next year (note that over the next month, some of the times might be slightly off due to several countries in the region changing their clocks at differing periods).

The Hong Kong sharemarket trades in two sessions each day and will now open for trade between 1pm (AEDT) and 3.30pm (AEDT) while the second session is between 5.30pm (AEDT) and 7pm (AEDT).

Out of Japan, the first session will be between 11am (AEDT) and 1pm (AEDT) while the second session is between 2.30pm (AEDT) and 5pm (AEDT).

The Singapore exchange will be open for trade between 12pm (AEDT) and 3.30pm (AEDT) for the first session and then between 5pm (AEDT) and 8pm (AEDT) for the second.

Asian markets are mixed, with Japan's Nikkei 225 index down 0.08 pct or 7.18 pts to 8674.97, while South Korea's KOSPI index is up 0.89 pct or 16.11 pts to 1821.2.

So far in trade at lunch 590 million shares have been traded worth $1.63 billion. 374 shares are up, 356 are lower and 298 are currently unchanged.

The Australian dollar (AUD) is remaining above parity levels against the greenback for the sixth straight session and buys US102.5 cents.

The AUD is the world's fifth most traded currency behind the U.S dollar, the Euro, Japanese Yen and British Pound. The AUD accounts for around 7 pct of all foreign exchange trades.

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