Australian Stock Market Report – Midday 12/5/2012

MID-SESSION REPORT
(12.30pm AEDT)

The Australian sharemarket is improving for the second time this week, however has trimmed gains following some worse than expected growth numbers. The Australian economy grew by 0.5 per cent in the September quarter (July to September), taking annual growth to 3.1 per cent. The market was hoping for 0.6 per cent to 0.7 per cent growth over the quarter. This adds to the barrage of negative economic readings over the past fortnight. The number of jobs advertised by Aussie businesses has fallen for eight straight months, retail spending was flat and home loan growth was weak.

The mining, energy and healthcare sectors are slipping back while most other sectors are higher. BHP Billiton (BHP) is down 0.58 per cent, while Rio Tinto (RIO) is up 0.45 per cent or 26 cents to $58.66.

The big four banks are all improving by as much as 0.8 per cent, with both the ANZ Banking Group (ANZ) and Commonwealth Bank (CBA) the best performers. National Bank (NAB) became the first of the majors to cut rates by 20 bps (0.2 per cent) today, taking the variable cash rate to 6.38 per cent effective December 10. This is a saving of around $50 a month on the average homeloan.

TPG Telecom (TPM), Australia's fourth biggest Internet Service Provider (ISP) held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) today with shareholders. It highlighted the fact that revenue rose 15 per cent over the year while profit jumped by 16 per cent. Profit has increased for four straight years. Telstra (TLS), which is around 30 times larger on the market is up 0.46 per cent or 2.5 cents to $4.34.

Following the start of daylight savings, major Asian markets will be trading between the hours mentioned below until October this year.

The Hong Kong sharemarket trades in two sessions each day and will now open for trade between 11.30am (AEST) and 2pm (AEST) while the second session is between 3.30pm (AEST) and 6pm (AEST).

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

The Singapore exchange will be open for trade between 11am and 2.30pm (AEST) for the first session and then between 4pm and 7pm (AEST) for the second.

U.S futures are currently pointing to a slightly weaker start to trade tonight. The U.S market trades between 1.30am (AEDT) and 8am (AEDT).

So far in trade at lunch, 1.07 million shares have been traded worth $1.46 billion. 362 shares are up, 409 are lower and 332 are currently unchanged.

The Australian dollar (AUD) is weaker and buys US104.6 cents, €79.9 cents and £65.02 pence.

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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