Australian Stock Market Report – Midday 11/8/13

MID-SESSION REPORT
(12.45pm AEDT)

The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is down by 0.4 per cent at lunch; however is only down mostly this week thanks to a 0.75 per cent surge on Tuesday. The miners are the biggest losers, with heavy losses from Westpac (WBC) also a big contributor to the weakness.

Iron ore producer, Fortescue Metals (FMG) is down by 4.6 per cent. The larger BHP Billiton (BHP) is down by 1.1 per cent. On a positive note for FMG shareholders, its shares are still up by a solid 5.4 per cent this week thanks to healthy improvements from Monday through to Wednesday.

Westpac (WBC) is down by 2.8 per cent due to it trading ex-dividend today. This means that purchasing WBC today onward will not make you eligible to receive the 19 December dividends (88cps + 10cps bonus payment). WBC makes up 6.6 per cent of the Australian market and is wiping out 11 pts from the All Ordinaries Index.

The Reserve Bank has issued its quarterly statement and has trimmed growth forecasts for 2014 by 0.5 per cent. The central bank now expects the Australian economy to expand by between 2-3 per cent in the 12 months ending December 2014 (rather than 2.5-3.5 per cent).

Commonwealth Bank (CBA) is holding its Annual General Meeting today. Earlier this week, CBA announced a $2.1 billion quarterly profit.

Echo Entertainment (EGP) is also holding its AGM. It is down 7.5 per cent. Echo is expected to launch a $1.5 billion bid to redevelop its Queensland casinos. It's expected to build a new casino in Brisbane to replace its current Treasury Casino (need for extra capacity) and give more attention to its QLD casinos.

Australia's biggest airline, Qantas (QAN) is up 0.82 per cent. It has announced plans to close its Avalon heavy maintenance facility in March next year due to the retirement of its Boeing 747 fleet. QAN shares are down 17.1 per cent this calendar year.

Offshore, the latest Chinese trade balance is expected to be issued today and could have some impact on the market and Aussie dollar. A US$23.5 billion surplus is expected for October.

The Australian dollar is weaker and buys US94.5 cents.

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