A man is reflected as he walks past the Australian Securities Exchange building in central Sydney April 8, 2011. Singapore Exchange Ltd has terminated its $8 billion bid for Australia's ASX Ltd after the Australian government formally rejected the offer o
A man is reflected as he walks past the Australian Securities Exchange building in central Sydney April 8, 2011. Singapore Exchange Ltd has terminated its $8 billion bid for Australia's ASX Ltd after the Australian government formally rejected the offer on national interest grounds and said changes to the country's financial systems were needed before the bourse could be bought by foreigners. REUTERS/Daniel Munoz (AUSTRALIA - Tags: BUSINESS POLITICS)
  • Australian shares are falling for just the second time in 11 days, with the ASX200 down by 0.4 per cent. Despite wiping out more than half of Monday's improvements, local stock are hanging close to one month highs.
  • Global markets finished mixed overnight while European stocks were the hardest hit. An influential monthly survey of German business confidence fell short of expectations which helped push the DAX down 1 per cent. This is following concerns in recent week that Europe's largest economy is doing it a little tough.
  • Annual General Meeting (AGM) season continues with a number of big names meeting investors. This includes Whitehaven Coal (WHC), WorleyParsons (WOR), Tabcorp (TAH), Domino's Pizza and Bega Cheese (BGA).
  • Mining stocks are the main drag on trade at lunch, with the price of iron ore falling by 0.3 per cent overnight and leaving ore around 39 per cent lower than at the start of the year. BC Iron (BCI) is down 9 per cent after cutting its sales forecasts for the year. Cliffs Natural Resources, the largest iron ore producer in the US posted a Q3 net loss of US$5.9bn - following a US$5.7bn write-down of its assets.
  • Banks are mixed with Westpac (WBC) the lone improver after a few hours of trade. ANZ Banking Group (ANZ) accidently published some of its profit results on its website early - which led to a trading halt Monday afternoon. According to the release, ANZ posted a 3 per cent rise in 2H Cash Profit to $3.5bn. ANZ is expected to announce a FY14 profit around $7bn on Friday.
  • CSL Limited (CSL) is up 1.3 per cent after a 0.8 per cent rise on Monday. The blood products company announced the purchase of the Novartis influenza vaccine business for US$275m. This will create the world's second largest company of its kind.
  • Volume remains light with 747.9m shares traded worth $1.41bn. 329 stocks are up, 415 are in the red and 322 are unchanged.
  • The Australian dollar buys US$0.881, €0.693 and £0.546.
  • Asian markets are mostly lower at this stage with Japan's Nikkei down 0.1 per cent, South Korea's KOSPI is down 0.3 per cent and the NZX50 is down a few points.

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