Sydney, Aug 30, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - The rollercoaster ride continues; Australian shares could rise upon opening after falling yesterday following Wall Street's lead. Investors will likely pick up beaten down shares such as Macquarie Bank; energy firms could also get a boost from more than 2 per cent rise in oil prices.

On Wednesday the S&P/ASX200 fell 1.2 per cent or 76 points settling on 6,100. On the futures market the SPI200 is up 96.

Turning to currencies, At 8:35 AM the Aussie dollar is buying 81.99 US cents, on the crosses the dollar is buying 95.01 yen, 59.99 Euro cents, and 40.67 British pence.

The full report is available at the following video and audio links.

Video Link

http://abnnewswire.net/fnnlnk/5696VW56


Audio Link

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/GT84WJ38


Making news headlines this morning, IBA Health finished higher on Wednesday, shares were up 6.63% to $1.045. Britain's iSoft Group is now recommending IBA Health's revised takeover offer, leaving Germany's CompuGroup out in the cold. iSoft said IBA Health's bid now offers superior value. It sits at $334.5 million. IBA Health earnings have been in positive territory since 2004.

Coates Hire shares were down 6.87% to $5.15. A Swedish company has agreed to sell some of its Australian assets to Coates Hire for an undisclosed sum. The transaction will involve generators four storage branches with 52 employees. Coates Hire earnings have been on an upswing for the past 4 years.

ABB Grain shares were up 1.21% to $8.37 yesterday. France's largest grain trading company and ABB have set up a joint venture to develop exporting activities in the Ukraine. The 50/50 venture will incorporate the entire capital base of the French company's existing operations in Ukraine and will tap into ABB's position in the Saudi market. ABB Grain has posted steadily increasing earnings since 2002.

And finally shares of Babcock & Brown were down 3.7% to $22.90 on Wednesday. B&B has bought a British self-storage company for close to $126.5 million. The company wants to expand in the self-storage market and plans to be one of the UK's biggest space providers within five years. Self-storage has huge potential as populations grow, real estate becomes more expensive and commercial space dwindles. Babcock & Brown posted record earnings last year.

The S&P/ASX top 200 companies trading ex-dividend today are Insurance Australia Group with a 16 cent fully franked dividend to be paid on the 8th of October, PaperlinX with a 6 cent zero per cent franked dividend to be paid on the 26th of September, Sonic HealthCare with a 29 cent fully franked dividend to be paid on the 20th of September and Suncorp Metway with a 55 cent fully franked dividend to be paid on the 1st of October.

To international markets, US markets snapped a two day loosing streak as investors realized they may have overreacted the previous day. The Dow Jones Industrials recovered 247, the S&P500 gained 31 points, and the Nasdaq advanced 63 making for its best day in over a year.

European markets followed the lead; London's FTSE gained 30 points; Paris was up 46, and Frankfurt improved 9.

Meanwhile Asian stocks were mixed; Hong Kong's Hang Sang dropped 343 points; Tokyo's Nikkei tumbled 275, and China's SSE Composite lost 85.

Back to the US, Gold added $1.90 to $675.40 US an ounce for the spot contract on Comex, Silver was up 8 cents at $12.01, copper was up 3 cents and is trading at $3.34.

And finally, oil added $1.78 to $73.51 for October light crude in New York.

Source: Finance News Network © 2007 http://www.finnewsnetwork.com.au
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