Australian Stock Market Report

MIDDAY REPORT (12pm AEDT)

The Australian sharemarket is kicking off the new trading week a touch higher with the All Ordinaries index (XAO) up 0.5 pct or 23 pts to 4369.3. All sectors are higher with the exception of the utilities which are a touch lower at lunch.

The miners are the standouts with index leader BHP Billiton (BHP) up 1.47 pct or 54 cents to $37.19. Gold producer Newcrest Mining (NCM) is down 1.14 pct or 41 cents to $35.54 taking the falls so far this year to 11.6 pct. Australia's second largest diversified miner RIO Tinto (RIO) is 0.5 pct or 33 cents stronger to $66.65.

The big four banks are also improving albeit more modestly. ANZ Banking Group (ANZ) is up 0.62 pct or 13 cents to $21.01, National Australia Bank (NAB) is 0.29 pct or 8 cents higher to $24.63, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is up 0.36 pct or 16 cents to $49.70 while Westpac (WBC) is 0.28 pct or 6 cents stronger to $21.63. The four big banks gained in the order of 10 pct last week.

The fact that Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti announced 30 billion Euros of austerity measures has helped lift market sentiment modestly today. The Prime Minister was previously the European Commissioner for close to 10 years and formed a new technocratic (a government formed which replaces politicians with specialists in particular fields) government following long serving Silvio Berlusconi's 'resignation'. The European Commission is the governing body of the European Union.

On the economic front, the latest monthly report on job advertisements has shown that the number of job ads online and in newspapers remained largely flat last month which is not good news for those out there looking for work.

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 mostly higher with Japan's Nikkei 225 index up 0.43 pct or 37.46 pts to 8681.21 and South Korea's KOSPI index is 0.11 pct or 2.02 pts higher to 1918.06.

One of the best performing stocks of the day is uranium miner Energy Resources (ERA) which is up 8.74 pct or 12.5 cents to $1.55. The company maintained its full year uranium production guidance today however is still down 78 pct since the start of the year (due to the March 11 earthquake in Japan).

So far in trade at lunch, 766 million shares have been traded worth $1.31 billion. 421 shares are up, 351 are lower and 318 are currently unchanged.

The Australian dollar (AUD) is remaining strong against the greenback and buys US102.3 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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