Australian Stock Market Report - Midday 11/23/2011

MIDDAY REPORT (12pm AEDT)

The Australian sharemarket is losing ground for the fourth straight day with the All Ordinaries index (XAO) down 0.7 pct or 29 pts to 4175.2. Almost all sectors are lower with the utilities managing to rise a touch at lunch.

Australia's two largest miners, BHP Billiton (BHP) and RIO Tinto (RIO) are both lower by over 1 pct with BHP down 1.6 pct while the smaller RIO is 1.24 pct softer.

The four major banks are putting additional downward pressure on the sharemarket with National Australia Bank (NAB) currently the worst performer. NAB shares are down 1.69 pct or 40 cents to $22.71 today. ANZ Banking Group (ANZ) is down 1.48 pct or 29 cents to $19.25, Westpac (WBC) is 1.38 pct or 28 cents lower to $20.08 while Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is 1.12 pct or 53 cents weaker to $46.89.

Over 90 companies are holding their Annual General Meetings (AGMs) with shareholders today, including Australia's second largest airline Virgin Australia (VBA). VBA is down 1.35 pct or 0.5 cent to 36.5 cents taking the losses in 2011 to 15 pct. While this is far from good keep in mind that Qantas (QAN) is down close to 40 pct since the start of January 2011.

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 currently mixed with South Korea's KOSPI index down 1.04 pct or 18.94 pts to 1807.34 while China's Shanghai Composite index is 0.05 pct or 1.26 pts higher to 2413.89.

On the economic front today, a report was released on the performance of the construction sector in the September quarter (July to September) with a 12.5 pct rise in activity across the country. It is important to keep in mind that Australia's largest mining state, Western Australian was the biggest contributor to these figures.

So far in trade at lunch, 852 million shares have been traded worth $1.44 billion. 279 shares are up, 451 are lower and 348 are currently unchanged.

The Australian dollar (AUD) is weaker and buys US98.4 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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