Australian Stock Market Report - Midday 11/21/2011

MIDDAY REPORT (12.30pm AEDT)

The Australian sharemarket has kicked off the new trading week a little indecisively with the All Ordinaries index (XAO) down 0.6 pct or 26.5 pts to 4220.2. Most sectors are lower with the mining sector down around 1 pct.

The world's third largest miner, RIO Tinto (RIO) is down 1.24 pct or 83 cents to $66.21 while the even bigger BHP Billiton (BHP) is 0.69 pct or 25 cents lower to $35.88.

The financial sector which accounts for around 35 pct of the broader market is currently easing by 0.5 pct with all four majors losing ground. The worst performing bank is ANZ Banking Group (ANZ) which is down 1.4 pct or 28 cents to $19.77, National Australia Bank (NAB) is 1.36 pct or 32 cents lower to $23.14, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is 0.67 pct or 32 cents weaker to $47.41 and Westpac (WBC) is only down 0.2 pct or 4 cents to $20.34.

Australia's oldest airline, Qantas (QAN) seems hopeful that a compromise will be reached with the workers' unions prior to tonight's midnight deadline. After a slightly stronger start this morning the company has not been able to remain positive and is currently down 1.51 pct or 2.5 cents to $1.63.

Today there will be over 45 companies holding their Annual General Meetings (AGMs) with shareholders including job search website, SEEK (SEK) which is currently up 0.67 pct or 4 cents to $6.02.

In the region, Japan releases its latest trade balance (the difference between exports and imports) and New Zealand will release a report on its credit card spending trends.

So far in trade at lunch, 766 million shares have been traded worth $1.17 billion. 296 shares are up, 466 are lower and 336 are currently unchanged.

The Australian dollar (AUD) has been flirting with parity against the greenback this morning and currently buys US99.54 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.

Steven Daghlian, Commsec Market Analyst

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