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 rising for the second day at lunch, with the ASX 200 index up 0.7 per cent. Stronger US markets overnight, firmer commodity prices and less substantial moves on the Shanghai market in recent days has helped.
  • Mining stocks are doing best, following a 5.6 per cent rise in iron ore which is boosting producers of the commodity. BHP Billiton (BHP) and Rio Tinto (RIO) are both up 2.5 per cent and accounting for a quarter of the market’s gains.
  • Energy company AWE is up 2.3 per cent after announcing a 28 per cent rise in quarterly production and annual output at the top end of the company’s guidance.
  • G.U.D Holdings (GUD) is up 8.7 per cent after the owner of Sunbeam posted an 88 per cent increase in annual profit to $33.2m. Record sales of household appliances helped. GUD raised its final dividend to 22c/s – a 4c increase on this time last year.
  • Myer (MYR) is up 0.6 per cent at lunch and 3 per cent firmer this week. The department store owner seems set to scrap 100 brands to make room for new ones and is expected to cut jobs. MYR shares slumped by 20 per cent in June.
  • Mobile phone business Amaysim (AYS) is up 2.5 per cent taking the gains to more than 10 per cent since making its ASX debut a fortnight ago.
  • Residential building approvals fell by a greater than expected 8.2 per cent in June although approvals are still up by more than 8.5 per cent over the past year.
  • Volume is light at lunch with 850.9m shares traded worth $1.8bn. 450 stocks are up, 313 down and 322 unchanged.

Steven Daghlian - Market Analyst (Author)

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