Australian Stock Market Report – Midday 8/16/13

MID-SESSION REPORT
(12.15pm AEST)

The Australian share market is under heavy selling pressure at lunchtime on Friday, after Wall Street suffered another triple digit loss overnight.

Consumer stocks were the biggest decliners after Walmart reported a decline in quarterly sales.

European markets also gave back recent gains with investors concerned central banks could tighten monetary policy sooner than anticipated due to Euro Zone 2Q GDP coming in stronger than expected

Another busy day on the company reporting season. The ANZ Bank (ANZ) reported an 11 per cent rise in cash profit for the nine months to June to $4.8 billion, with CEO Mike Smith painting a relatively upbeat picture of conditions in Australia and Asia. However there are concerns that ANZ's margins in Asia remain under pressure and ANZ shares are down almost three per cent in early trade.

APN News and Media (APM) has swung to a 1H profit of $12.8M from a $319M loss in prior corresponding period. APN shares are up an impressive 22 per cent at lunch to 35.5c at lunchtime.

Energy giant Santos (STO) has reported a 3 per cent rise in 1H NPAT to $271M thanks to increased sales revenue from higher gas prices. Underlying profit fell 11pct to $251M while total revenue rose one per cent to $1.53B. STO shares are firmer by 2 per cent to $14.31.

Institutions have taken up Domino's Pizza's (DMP) entitlement offer, which has raised $137M. The retail entitlement offer opens on Tuesday August 20 with an offer price of $10.20 per share. DMP shares are up 13.2 per cent at lunch to $13.05.

On the market overall, a total of 858 million shares have changed hands so far, worth $1.9 billion. 330 are up, 427 are down and 268 are unchanged.

The Aussie dollar is buying US91.48c.

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