Australian Stock Market Report – Midday 6/11/13

MID-SESSION REPORT

(12.30pm AEST)

The Australian share market is slightly firmer at lunchtime in the East, following a mixed night on offshore markets.

Financial and key mining players remain subdued. Shares in Australia's largest listed gold producer Newcrest Mining (NCM) have fallen to levels not seen since 2004, after the company forecast a profit warning and announced job cuts on Friday. NCM is down almost 3 per cent to $12.

Share market operator ASX (ASX) has announced it will raise $553 million to fund growth by issuing of new shares. Eligible shareholders will be offered two new shares for every 19 they own as part of an entitlement offer. The new shares will be issued at a discount price of $30 per share. ASX is in a trading halt at $35.84. The company also announced today it expects to make a net profit of around $346 million in the year to June 30, up from last year's profit of $339.2 million.

Virtus Health (VRT) has listed on the stock market today. The company is a health service which owns IVF Australia. It listed at $6.06 and at lunchtime in the East is worth $6.18 a share.

More soft economic data has been released today. The NAB Business Survey showed business confidence rose from minus 1.4 to minus 0.7 in May. Business conditions rose from minus 5.7 to minus 3.5. Elsewhere there was a small rise in home loans, with the number of owner occupier housing loans up 0.8 per cent in April. The value of all housing loans was down 0.2 per cent. Investor loans rose 1.1 per cent.

So far on the market, 745 million shares have changed hands, worth $2.14 billion. 424 shares are up, 391 are down and 356 are unchanged.

The Australian dollar briefly dipped below US94c in morning trade but at lunchtime in the East is at US94.08c. The dip below US94c was the lowest level we have seen the Aussie since September 2010.

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