Sydney, Sept 6, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - Australian shares could open slightly weaker this morning after markets tumbled in New York yesterday. All eyes will be on Coates Hire rejected a sweetened takeover offer from Carlyle Group and National Hire.

The S&P/ASX200 fell 31 points to 6,263 on Wednesday. On the future's market the SPI200 is down 61.

Turning to currencies, the Australian dollar has been choppy in offshore trade this morning, falling from its one-week peak against the US dollar. At 8:45 AM the Aussie dollar is buying 82.29 US cents, on the crosses the dollar is buying 94.79 yen, 60.3 Euro cents, and 40.75 British pence.

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

Video Link

http://abnnewswire.net/fnnlnk/0314033U


Audio Link

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/749218FA


Making news this morning is Coates Hire. Shares in the company rose 4.86% to $5.82 on Wednesday after Carlyle Group and National Hire made a sweetened $1.6 billion takeover. But Coates board has rejected the offer saying it still undervalued the company. A condition of any bid is that it gets the board's unanimous support. Coates put itself up for sale in June, and has said it would focus on growing sales and cutting costs. Coates Hire has enjoyed steadily increasing earnings since 2002.

Woodside Petroleum shares were down 0.77% to $45.20 on the ASX yesterday. Woodside's proposed LNG project in southern California has cleared its first major regulatory hurdle. The project will now begin a public approval process which may prove difficult considering the opposition to BHP Billiton's rival proposal that's now pretty much dead in the water. Several other proposals for an LNG plant off the Californian coast have also been knocked back. The review process for Woodside's plan is expected to last well into next year. Woodside Petroleum earnings recovered in 2006 after experiencing a minor setback the previous financial year.

The S&P/ASX top 200 companies trading ex-dividend today are Adelaide Brighton with a 6 cent fully franked dividend to be paid on the 11th of October, Amcor with a 17 cent zero percent franked dividend to be paid on the 5th of October, and APN News and Media with a 10.5 cent zero per cent franked dividend to be paid on the 27th of September.

To international markets, US markets tumbled on negative jobs and housing data, The Dow Jones Industrials was down 143, the S&P500 lost 17 and the Nasdaq composite dropped 24 points.

European markets were weaker; London's FTSE fell 106 points; Paris was down 121, and Frankfurt declined 134.

Asian stocks were mixed; Hong Kong's Hang Sang gained 183 points; Tokyo's Nikkei sank 262, but China's SSE Composite gained 17.

Back to the US, gold lost 80 cents to $690.70 US an ounce for the spot contract on Comex, Silver followed gold's lead easing 9 cents to $12.36, and copper ended 4 cents weaker and is trading at $3.26.

And finally, Oil was up 65 cents to $75.73 for October light crude in New York.

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