Australian Stock Market Report – Midday December 4, 2014

An office worker is reflected in the window of the Australian Securities Exchange building displaying the ASX50 curve for Wednesday in central Sydney August 7, 2013. Australian shares skidded 1.3 percent on Wednesday, its biggest fall in five weeks, hit by sharp falls in miners and financials as regional markets tracked a soft Wall Street lead amid uncertainty about the U.S. Federal Reserve's stimulus programme REUTERS/Daniel Munoz (AUSTRALIA - Tags: BUSINESS)

ASX 200 forges ahead

 Early trade on Thursday has seen local shares continue to build on the gains of recent sessions. The ASX 200 opened the day with a gain of 5 points before pushing on to the best levels of the morning when the market was ahead by 52 pts. Investors have been encouraged by the positive tone of US economic news released over night. European shares were generally higher on Wednesday on hopes that the European Central Bank would inject more stimulus into the economy on Thursday. The FTSEurofirst 300 index rose by 0.5% and the German Dax rose by 0.4% although the UK FTSE fell by 0.4%. US share markets were also higher after the ISM services index rose from 57.1 to 59.3 in November, above forecasts for a result near 57.5. The ADP survey jobs growth in the private sector showed that 208,000 jobs were created in November, which was just short of expectations for 221,000 job growth. The Dow Jones rose by 0.2%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq gained 0.4%.

 Most ASX sectors were being well supported in early trade although energy stocks stood out as the weak point in the market. World oil prices were mixed in the last 12 hours. Brent crude fell by US62c or 0.9% to US$69.92 a barrel. The US Nymex crude price rose by US50c or 0.7% to US$67.38 a barrel. Woodside Petroleum (WPL.AU) recovered early losses to be up 1.5% and Oil Search (OSH.AU) did likewise with a gain of 0.1% . Santos (STO.AU) led the sector lower with a loss of 8.6% after abandoning plans to raise funds. In November Santos said it was considering a potential European hybrid issue, subject to acceptable market conditions. However since the announcement in late November the oil price has seen considerable declines. The group said this morning that as a result of the change in market conditions, it had decided to defer any hybrid issuance until market conditions improved. STO said its existing funding position is on a solid footing and includes approximately $2 billion in available liquidity, and there are "no current intention" to undertake an equity raising.

 Education and training provider Vocation (VET) has seen its shares dive after it cut its full year earnings forecast. VET expects underlying earnings will fall to between $25 million and $30 million over the full year in 2015 compared to $36.1 million last year. Vocation had earlier predicted that pre-tax earnings would be between $53 million and $57 million. The earnings downgrade comes after the chairman, John Dawkins, resigned in the aftermath of an inquiry by the Victorian government into the company's services. The report revealed that students had been enrolled in inappropriate and low-quality courses. As a result of the enquiry Vocation lost almost $20 million in funding from Victoria's Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. VET resumed trade after being placed in a trading halt on Tuesday, at lunchtime the shares were down by 29 cents or 58 per cent at 21 cents.

 In economic news figures showed that retail sales rose by more than expected in October. Retail sales rose by 0.4% in October from September according to the ABS. Economists had expected a rise of 0.1% over the month coming after a better-than-expected 1.3% jump in September. The improved reading showed strong gains in department-store sales, household-goods retailing and clothing. The back to back improvement in September and October was the strongest two-month gain this year. Retail names were generally higher Harvey Norman (HVN) and JB HiFi were both ahead by 1.5% . The Aussie dollar firmed on the back of the retail sales data to be at 84.20 US cents at mid-day.

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