Australian Stock Market Report – Midday 3-25-13

MID-SESSION REPORT
(12.30pm AEDT)

The Australian sharemarket is off to a positive start, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up 0.6 per cent. We're coming off the back of the biggest weekly fall for the local market since May last year.

Some sources have announced that a draft rescue deal has been reached between Cyprus and its international lenders. No levy is expected to be charged on any accounts at Cypriot banks. The Popular Bank of Cyprus is expected to be closed. Some restrictions are likely on larger Cypriot bank deposits. The Euro has improved against the U.S dollar in reaction to the news and now buys around US103.2c. At 10am (AEDT) the Euro was buying US102.9c.

The major banks are continuing to outperform the market, with the four largest players up by as much as 1.4 per cent. Australia's mining sector is edging higher largely in-line with the rest of the market. The S&P/ASX 200 Materials index (a broad measure of mining sector performance) is still down by 8.5 per cent in March due to a lower iron ore price.

Construction company Leighton Holdings (LEI) has appointed both a new Chairman and Deputy Chairman following a number of resignations late last week. LEI shares are up 4.7 per cent and are partly making up for the close to 7 per cent slump last Friday.

Property group Westfield (WDC) is having its best day of the year, with its shares rising by around 2.5 per cent. This after announcing the sale of stakes in six of its Florida malls to a U.S real estate firm for US$700M to help fund expansion projects. WDC shares are up 4.7 per cent this year, adding to 2012's 35 per cent improvement.

This will be a shortened trading week with markets closed this Friday in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, New Zealand, Singapore and the Philippines. The local market will also be closed next Monday. Investors are likely to be impacted and influenced more heavily by developments in Europe rather than local economic news.

At lunch, 662.1M shares have exchanged hands worth $1.26B. 405 stocks are improving, 364 are losing ground while 312 are unchanged.

[Kick off your trading day with our newsletter]