Sydney, Aug 31, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - Australian shares could end the week on a sour note, with financial firms and those with US exposure likely to lead the declines. Yesterday Wall Street eased on growing worries that credit market troubles will hurt earnings and consumer spending.

On Thursday the S&P/ASX200 rose 0.6 per cent or 35 points settling on 6,135. The index is now up 8.2 per cent since the start of the year and on the futures market the SPI200 is down 14.

Turning to currencies, At 8:35 AM the Aussie dollar is buying 81.64 US cents, on the crosses the dollar is buying 94.68 yen, 59.87 Euro cents, and 40.55 British pence.

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

Video Link

http://abnnewswire.net/fnnlnk/26M090U6


Audio Link

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/Y79R1C1Y


Making news this morning is ANZ Bank. Shares in Australia's third-biggest lender fell 1.41% to $28.59 after it announced that provisions rose significantly in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year. The bank said revenue and expenses were at the high end of its target but assured investors that recent turmoil in the credit markets has so far only had a negligible impact on earnings. Officials say its operations in New Zealand and Asia are performing well, but blamed them for the overall weakness. ANZ is scheduled to release its full-year earnings in late October. ANZ Bank has posted steadily increasing earnings since 2002.

Forestry group Gunns finished lower on Thursday, shares were down 2.65% to $3.30. Yesterday the company announced full year profits rose slightly to just over $88 million from around $87 million the previous year, thanks to marginal improvements in woodchip prices. Looking ahead, the company's chief exec said the tightening of supply in competing regions and a recent decline in the Australian dollar would help the group's export business, but he doesn't expect the domestic timber market will improve in the first half. Gunns earnings have eased since peaking in 2004.

And briefly, Rio Tinto has received Canadian competition clearance for its purchase of Alcan which was a condition of the deal.

The S&P/ASX top 200 companies trading ex-dividend today are AGL Energy with a 26 cent fully franked dividend to be paid on the 28th of September, Cochlear with a 10 cent fully franked dividend to be paid on the 14th of September, Computershare with a 9 cent zero per cent dividend to be paid on the 21st of September, and Foster's Group with a 13 cent fully franked dividend to be paid on the 1st of October.

To international markets, US markets ended mixed as credit market worries weighed on investors. The Dow Jones Industrials lost 51, the S&P500 eased 6 points, but the Nasdaq posted a 2 point gain.

European markets were stronger; London's FTSE gained 80 points; Paris was up 73, and Frankfurt improved 81.

Meanwhile Asian stocks were all stronger; Hong Kong's Hang Sang surged 464 points; Tokyo's Nikkei was up 141, and China's SSE Composite gained 58.

Back to the US, gold finished just slightly lower in on a day of quiet trade. Gold lost $1.50 to $673.90 US an ounce for the spot contract on Comex, Silver was lost 5 cents to $11.96, copper was steady at $3.35.

And finally, oil dipped 15 cents to $73.36 for October light crude in New York.

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