Leighton Holdings Ltd (ASX: LEI), one of Australia’s leading contracting and project development groups, says its subsidiary Leighton Contractors has been awarded a three-year contract extension valued at approximately $225 million by BHP Mitsui Coal Pty Ltd (BMC) to continue contract mining services at the Poitrel mine.
Origin Energy Ltd (ASX: ORG) had completed the acquisition of the Integral Energy and Country Energy retail businesses from the NSW State-owned energy network businesses and entered into binding GenTrader arrangements with Eraring Energy.
The Reserve Bank of Australia board has decided to leave the cash rate unchanged at 4.75 per cent at its monthly meeting today.
Manufacturing in Australia was back in growth territory in February with the seasonally adjusted Australian Industry Group -PwC Australian Performance of Manufacturing Index ( PMI) rising 4.4 points to 51.1.
Official figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed an improvement in retail trade in January. However, Australia's current account deficit has worsened.
Despite the impact of the severe weather conditions, Australia has positive prospects for agricultural production and exports, according to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES).
Australia’s telco giant Telstra and Hong Kong-based telecom service provider PCCW have completed their Reach restructure. The two announced in January that the international assets in their 50/50 Reach joint venture would be divided between both parties.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has clarified the treatment of high‑quality liquid assets it will apply when implementing the new global liquidity standard announced by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (Basel Committee) in December 2010.
By Greg PeelIndustry consultant TradeTech's indicative uranium spot price was set at the end of last week at US$67.50/lb, down US$1.00 from the previous week. This follows a US$4.25 drop the week before and the first drop following the big run-up, of US25c, the week before that.So that makes three down weeks but TradeTech suggests there are signs the spot price is stabilising. Nervous sellers rema...
Comments from a Chinese banker pertaining to monetary policy saw the Australian Dollar finish yesterday's local session almost half a cent higher.
U.S. stocks were mixed Monday as oil prices paused from their recent rally while investors were encouraged by comments from a top Federal Reserve official.
US personal spending rose by a less than expected 0.2pct in January - marking the seventh straight month of gains.
With little influential data released during the offshore session the AUD traded fairly flat, opening only slightly higher this morning at USD1.0180.
By Greg PeelThe Dow rose 95 points or 0.8% while the S&P gained 0.6% to 1327 and the Nasdaq was steady.There was a lot going on in the Monday session to give stocks a further kick along. Firstly it was month-end, when often fund managers push up prices to make their returns more appealing. Given blue chips are in favour at present we can see a bit of influence here in the Dow's outperformance.Then...
- Upside risk to tomorrow's Q4 GDP result- Q1 data mixed to date- RBA going nowhereBy Greg PeelBefore we get to the RBA's monetary policy statement for March, let us review some of the recently released economic data.It's at this time of the quarter that economists are furiously rejigging their Australian GDP forecasts, given the raft of quarterly data released only days before the actual GDP resu...
No change in the economy's current sluggish pace, judging by yesterday's data.Headline inflation remains reasonably high, driven by the rain and flood damage to vegetables and fruit, business credit is subdued, business stocks rose in the three months to December, corporate profits fell slightly and wages and salaries were up a touch.Nothing will influence the Reserve Bank at its board m...
Just when many analysts thought iron ore prices couldn't go much higher there's news of another round of big price rises in the offing.In fact the huge surge in profits seen in the last half of 2010 will be repeated this half, and especially the June quarter with prices up 40% or more above a year earlier.BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and other iron ore exporters are looking for a surprise 20%...
Guess which company is now a stockmarket darling, despite a second half profit warning yesterday?Why, it's Queensland railway operator, QR National, the stock many local fund managers spurned in the noisy privatisation late last year.Now they want it because it's showing some potential, but more importantly it is about to be included in a number of major market measurement indexes, and f...
Australian company Wesfarmers Ltd (WES) has made a NZ$1 million donation to the Prime Minister’s New Zealand Christchurch Earthquake Appeal.
The Australian Bankers' Association (ABA) said there was a low rate of complaints against banks in information released today from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).
Equinox Minerals Ltd (TSX and ASX: EQN) says it will make an offer to acquire Lundin Mining Corporation for approximately C$4.8 billion in cash and shares.
QBE Insurance, Australia's biggest insurer, reported a net profit after income tax of US$1,278 million, down from US$1,532 million last year.
The Australian market has started off the week a little lower for the fifth day out of the last six. The All Ordinaries index (XAO) is down 0.2 pct or 12.1 pts to 4912.8. Most sectors are in the red at lunch, however the energy sector is gaining quite strongly after a few hours of trade.
In its first results since a $4.6 billion privatisation by the Queensland government in November, QR National said revenues in the six months to the end of December rose 18 per cent to $1.75bn from $1.48bn.
(This story was originally published on 17th February, 2011. It has now been re-published to make it available to non-paying members at FNArena and to readers elsewhere).- Post-GFC, investors are seeking safer risk/reward profiles- Managed property remains a popular investment- Unlisted trusts have experienced much lower return volatility this past decade than other assets- The burgeoning pool of ...
(This story was originally published on Wednesday, 23rd February, 2011. It has now been re-published to make it available to non-paying members at FNArena and to readers elsewhere). - it would seem my personal indicator has once again correctly indicated the share market was overheated- as long as investor sentiment remains positive towards the US economy, any pull backs are likely to remain benig...
The Australian Dollar has opened firmer this morning, trading around 1.0150 after touching a high of 1.0185 during Friday night's offshore session.
The Australian Dollar gained a full cent during Friday's trade as ongoing concern for rising oil prices and political unrest in Libya weaken the US Dollar.
U.S. stocks rose Friday after three days of losses as shares of Boeing surged and as lessening fears over oil supply helped crude prices stabilize.
The US economy grew at a revised 2.8pct in the March quarter. The flash estimate had the economy growing at a 3.2pct annual pace and economists had expected an upward revision to 3.3pct.
