Australian Securities Exchange (ASX)
People walk past the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) building in central Sydney October 20, 2008. Reuters/Daniel Munoz
  • Australian shares are off to a firmer start, with the ASX 200 index up 0.3 per cent while remaining below the key 5400pt mark. Local stocks slumped by 2.1 per cent last week, following the surprise devaluation of China’s currency.
  • In recent weeks a few of the banks have raised funds from investors to meet new regulatory requirements from APRA (the banking regulator). This includes ANZ a little over a week ago and Commonwealth Bank (CBA) today. Australia's largest bank resumed trade for the first time in close to a week after raising ~$2.1bn from institutional investors as part of a $5bn capital raising. CBA is now expected to raise ~$3bn from retail investors.
  • BHP Billiton (BHP) is slightly weaker despite a firmer start. The miner said it has resumed normal iron ore shipments following the deadly blasts at the Chinese port of Tianjin. FMG is up 2.9 per cent and said it was unaffected by the blasts.
  • Week three of the profit reporting season has kicked off and is typically the busiest of the season. Wesfarmers (WES), Qantas (QAN), Woodside Petroleum (WPL), Insurance Australia Group (IAG), Medibank (MPL) and QBE Insurance (QBE) are all scheduled to post results this week.
  • Newcrest Mining (NCM) is up 4.4 per cent following its $546m FY15 NPAT this morning. Australia’s largest gold miner posted a $2.2bn loss in the previous year. Property group Charter Hall Retail (CQR) posted a weaker than expected 5.2 per cent rise in operating earnings for the year and announced a $50m capital raising to help with the purchase of two shopping centres.
  • 928.6m shares have been traded, worth $1.7bn at lunch. 434 stocks are up, 358 down and 286 are unchanged.

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Steven Daghlian - Market Analyst (Author)

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