A man looks the board of the Australian Securities Exchange ASX in central Sydney August 7, 2013.
A man looks the board of the Australian Securities Exchange in central Sydney August 7, 2013. Reuters/Daniel Munoz
  • Australian shares are a touch weaker for the first time since Monday, with the ASX 200 index down just a few points. Should the situation not deteriorate this afternoon, this will be the best week for our market since early February.
  • Recent developments in Greece have been drivers of equity markets globally. The Greek parliament voted in favour of tough new reforms yesterday. Overnight, Eurozone finance ministers agreed to give Greece a €7bn bridging loan to keep its banks afloat. EU member states are expected to approve the loan tonight. The ECB has also agreed to increase emergency funding to Greece following a freeze last month.
  • Miners are down by 0.1 per cent after iron ore and oil prices tumbled overnight. Santos (STO) shares are down 1.2 per cent after announcing a 19 per cent slide in revenue for the past quarter caused by falling oil prices. The oil and gas company reaffirmed its FY guidance for production of between 57-65mmboe.
  • Metcash (MTS) is up 3.8 per cent after the grocery distributor announced a new CEO of Supermarkets.
  • Mobile co. Amaysim (AYS) is higher, taking the gains to 7 per cent since making its ASX debut three days ago. AYS has ~700,000 customers and repackages Optus mobile services.
  • Primary Health (PRY) is up 0.3 per cent, however slumped 8 per cent on Thursday after a warning of weaker profits for the year. The owner of close to 90 medical centres blamed this partly on a relatively mild cold and flu season.
  • Volume is average at lunch, with 870.1m shares traded worth $1.9bn. 491 stocks are up, 297 down and 285 unchanged.

Steven Daghlian - Market Analyst (Author)

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