Sydney, July 30, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - Australian shares recovered early losses to be little changed this morning, with mining firms gaining as investors' attention turned from losses on international markets to strong fundamentals here at home.
At Midday the ASX200 index has eased 13 points to 6,070 and on the futures market the SPI 200's down 20.
In economic news, National Australia Bank's index of business confidence climbed 2 points to 12 points, its highest level in almost four years. NAB will release its full business conditions survey for the second quarter on Tuesday.
In company news this hour, Santos has increased its interest in the Bayu-Undan LNG and LPG development. The company's stake been increased to 11.4 per cent from 10.6 per cent as part of a redetermination process. The increase is a positive outcome for Santos and will be effective immediately and backdated to the start of field's development. Separately, Santos is reporting leak happened in its Moonie to Brisbane oil pipeline on Saturday. Approximately 1,300 barrels of crude oil and water have been removed from the site, with an investigation into the cause of the incident already underway. Santos says the production impact of the incident is not material. Santos shares were down 1.78% to $13.21 in morning trade.
Major shareholders of Seven Network are reportedly opposed to the broadcaster launching an appeal against the Federal Court's C7 ruling. According to the Australian, Seven's second biggest shareholder Ausbil Dexia has plans to contact the network Seven to express its concern about an appeal. The latest news comes as investors continue to speak out against Seven spending more time pursuing the case. Seven is up 0.64% to $10.98 through this mornings session.
And now to warrants with Macquarie Bank. BHP Billiton is currently up 1.3 per cent at $36.53 and Rio Tinto, which will report earnings on Thursday, recovered from early losses to rise 1 per cent to $91.69. Warrant traders have been active in the BHPIM4 October $31.00 Deferred Settlement Instalment and BHPIM9 September $30.00 Deferred Settlement Instalment.
There has also been some good activity in the RIOIM5 December $80.00 Instalment.
Oxiana has also staged a solid recovery this morning, up 1.1%, following the trend in strengthening big cap miners. The company also announced a solid quarterly activities report last week. Traders have actively bought the OXRIM3 September $3.00 Instalment.
Turning now to market indices, the Telco index has gained 8 points to 1,644. IC2 Global added 14.29% to 16 cents. Singtel and Telstra IRS also gained through morning trade.
The worst performers was the Property Trust index, down 18 points to 2,249. Macquarie DDR Trust fell 3.24% to $1.19 and a half. ING Industrial and Investa Property Group also performed poorly.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei is down 233 points and in New Zealand the NZSX-50 is down 12.
Gold is trading at $661 U.S an ounce and one Australian dollar's buying 85.14 U.S cents.
Source: Finance News Network © 2007
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