Australian Stock Market Report – Morning 11/12/13

MORNING MARKET UPDATE
(8am AEDT)

In European economic news, Italian industrial production rose by 0.2pct in September, while annual contraction slowed to minus 3.0pct.

European shares rose on Monday, led by healthcare stocks after well-received acquisitions in the sector. Spanish pharmaceutical firm Grifols gained 4.5pct after acquiring a blood transfusion testing unit from Novartis. Britain´s largest general insurer RSA lost 10.5pct in strong trading volume, after reporting that it is probing losses and premiums at its Irish unit stretching back two years. Britain´s dominant pay-tv operator BSkyB shed 10.9pct as investors recoiled from the group´s loss of Champions League soccer rights. The FTSEurofirst 300 index fell by 0.3pct, the UK FTSE rose by 0.3pct and the German Dax rose by 0.3pct.

The US sharemarkets barely moved on Monday, with the Veteran´s Day public holiday giving investors a reason to pause. Trading volumes were light across all exchanges. Shares in Twitter were largely flat on its third day of trade. With an hour of trade left the Dow Jones was higher by 21 points or 0.1pct with the S&P 500 rose by 0.1pct and the Nasdaq was flat.

US treasury markets were closed for the Veterans Day holiday.

The Euro managed to retrace some of its recent losses against the greenback in European and US trade on Monday, in low volume trade. The Euro rose from lows near US$1.3355 to around US$1.3415, ending US trade near its highs. The Aussie dollar fell from highs near US93.85c to US93.40c, ending US trade near US93.55c. And the Japanese yen eased from near 98.90 yen per US dollar to JPY99.30, ending US trade at JPY99.20.

World oil prices rose modestly on Monday after Iran and western nations fell short of reaching a deal on Tehran´s nuclear program. The Brent crude price rose by US82c or 0.8pct to US$105.94 a barrel, US Nymex crude rose by US54c or 0.6pct to US$95.14 a barrel.

Base metal prices were mostly weaker on the London Metal Exchange on Monday. The exception was Tin which rose by 0.5pct and Copper which was flat. Other metals fell up to 0.7pct. Gold recorded modest falls on Monday with the Comex December futures gold price down by US$3.50 or 0.3pct to US$1,281.10 per ounce. The iron ore price was unchanged at US$135.90 a tonne.

Ahead: In Australia, lending finance and NAB Business confidence data is released. In the US, no economic data is released.

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