Sydney, Sept 17, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - Australian shares could be searching for direction after a lacklustre day in New York.
On Friday the S&P/ASX200 was up 76 points to 6,307. On the future's market the SPI200 is up 7.
Turning to currencies, at 8:35 AM is buying 84.18 US cents, on the crosses the dollar is buying 96.99 yen, 60.69 Euro cents, and 41.98 British pence.
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http://acnnewswire.net/lnk/FFU28Q63Making news headlines this morning is Perpetual. Shares in the investment management company were up 0.97% to $74.16 on Friday. The Sydney Morning Herald says Perpetual is restructuring to better align its business strategy with its operations. The firm will now reportedly have four new business units headed by a group executive who reports to the CEO. The idea is to create greater alignment between the business strategy and its organisational structure. Perpetual does not anticipate an increase in costs as a result of the reorganisation. Perpetual expects to continue to do well this fiscal year. In 2007 Perpetual saw earnings rise to just over $182 million in fiscal 2007.
Orica shares last traded up 1.45% to $28. Orica's chief executive told the ABC's Inside Business that despite the recently sagging share price things are looking good. Graeme Liebelt said Orica's Chinese operations are expected to grow, and that China is the company's number one focus. However, Liebelt said Orica also has "big" opportunities in Eastern Europe, in Africa and Latin America. Orica saw earnings rebound in 2006 from a slump the previous year.
To international markets, US markets ended mostly unchanged on Friday as investors await an interest rate cut this week. The Dow Jones Industrials was up 18, the S&P500 was mostly flat and the Nasdaq composite added just 1 point.
The Bank of England had to approve emergency funding for lender Northern Rock, reminding investors there that the credit crunch is still a very real threat; London's FTSE lost 75 points; Paris eased 27, and Frankfurt sagged 38.
Asian stocks were all stronger; Hong Kong's Hang Sang soared 361 points; Tokyo's Nikkei jumped 306, and China's SSE Composite advanced 39.
Back to the US, gold lost 10 cents to $717.80 US an ounce for the spot contract on Comex, Silver added 3 cents to $12.71, copper was steady at $3.39.
And finally, oil eased 99 cents to $79.10 for October light crude in New York.
Source: Finance News Network © 2007
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