Australian Stock Market Report – Midday 8/19/13

MID-SESSION REPORT
(12.30pm AEST)

The Australian sharemarket is up by around 0.2 per cent at lunch, after a relatively flat few hours of trade.

Both Commonwealth Bank (CBA) and Telstra (TLS) are trading ex-dividend today, which is pushing two of the largest Australian companies into the red. This means that investors purchasing shares in either business today onwards will not be eligible to receive their next dividend payments. CBA is paying out a $2/s dividend on 3 October. TLS is paying out its usual 14c/s dividend on 20 Sept. CBA is down by 2.7 per cent, while TLS is off by 3.3 per cent. CBA is the biggest company on the local market, while TLS is the sixth largest.

We've just entered the busiest week of the profit reporting season (week three). Steel company, BlueScope (BSL) is down 15.45 per cent after write-downs resulted in a $84.1m loss for the full year. BSL shares are still up by 34 per cent this calendar year.

Financial institution, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank (BEN) handed down an 80 per cent jump in Net Profit After Tax of $352.3m. The previous year's NPAT was impacted by a $95m write down in its margin lending and wealth management divisions. BEN shares are up 0.85 per cent.

This week on the profit reporting front, we'll hear from BHP Billiton (BHP), IAG (the owner of NRMA), QBE Insurance, Woodside Petroleum (WPL) and Fortescue Metals (FMG).

It will be a quiet week for economic news in Australia. The Reserve Bank board minutes will be the only bit of top shelf data out over the coming days.

In the US, all eyes will be on the Jackson Hole Symposium. This typically has over 100 central banker, economists, academics and policymakers meeting over a weekend each year. This year however, the head of the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England are not expected to attend.

Manufacturing data in China, Europe and the US on Thursday will also be a highlight.

At lunch, 910m shares have changed hands, worth $3.1bn. 474 stocks are up, 313 stocks are in the red and 291 are unchanged. Volume is higher than usual at this time of the day.

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