Sydney, Sept 25, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - Australian shares could ease from yesterday's record heights this morning after renewed credit market fears, this time in Germany. But firmer base metals could lend support to the overall market.

On Monday the S&P/ASX200 rose 1.5 per cent or 94 points to finish at 6,452, surpassing its previous record set two months ago. The market is now up 14 per cent since the start of the year; on the future's market the SPI200 is down 12. Turning to currencies, the Australian dollar rose slightly in morning trade. At 8:35 AM the Aussie is buying 86.84 US cents, on the crosses the dollar is buying 99.8 yen, 61.66 Euro cents, and 42.96 British pence.

Making news headlines this morning is Sims Group; shares last traded at $32.55 before being placed on a trading halt yesterday. Sims has agreed to buy US scrap company Metal Management for $1.6 billion in stock, creating the largest global scrap metal company with a market capitalization of $5 billion. A sharp rise in iron ore prices, increased demand from rapidly growing economies and limited supply of scrap metal has made scrap an attractive commodity. The transaction has a mutual termination fee of $25 million; Sims expects to close the deal in the first quarter of 2008. Sims Group has been profitable since 2002.

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

Video Link

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Audio Link

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Progen Pharmaceuticals shares were up 5.03% to $3.55 on the ASX Monday. The biotech company has announced that its experimental cancer drug failed to meet the main goal of a mid-phase trial for the treatment of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer. But in a separate statement, Progen said the drug received a fast track status by the US Food and Drug Administration for the prevention of tumor recurrence in patients with primary liver cancer. Progen shares were down more than 5 per cent on the Nasdaq. Progen has been operating at a loss since 2002.

And briefly, Wesfarmers plans to reduce corporate overheads of Coles Group by $385 million each year. Plans include bringing food, liquor, convenience and Kmart under one Coles banner.

The S&P/ASX top 200 companies trading ex-dividend today are Iluka Resources with a fully franked 10 cent dividend to be paid on the 19th of October, Sigma Pharmaceuticals with a 3 cent fully franked dividend to be paid on the 19th of October and Sally Malay Mining with a 12 cent fully franked dividend to be paid on the 15th of October.

To international markets, US markets eased based on financial shares and the first national autoworkers strike in 37 years; The Dow Jones Industrials lost 61, the S&P500 was down 8 and the Nasdaq composite eased 3 points.

European markets were mixed on as weakness in financial stocks offset gains in mining shares, and as the euro hit a fresh high against the dollar; London's FTSE was up 9 points; Paris lost 8, and Frankfurt lost just 7 points after rumours that Deutsche bank is about to take a subprime hit.

To Asia, where Hong Kong's Hang Sang soared 708 points; Tokyo's Nikkei was closed yesterday, and China's SSE Composite was 30 points stronger.

Back to the US, gold added 40 cents to $739.30 US an ounce for the spot contract on Comex, Silver added 2 cents to $13.64, copper gained 5 cents to $3.65.

And finally, oil slipped 67 cent to finish at $80.95 for November light crude in New York.

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

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