Sydney, Oct 3, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - Australian shares could fall today, cooling from record peaks set in the previous session, with a fall in oil prices likely to put pressure on energy firms such as Woodside Petroleum.

On Tuesday the benchmark S&P/ASX200 rose 1.5 per cent or 96 points to finish on a record high of 6,660; on the future's market the SPI200 is down 19.

Turning to currencies, Australian dollar pulled further away from recent 18-year peaks in offshore trade as the US dollar rebounds from record lows against most major currencies. At 8:30 AM the Aussie is buying 88.25 US cents, on the crosses the dollar is buying 102.16 yen, 62.39 Euro cents, and 43.28 British pence.

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

Video Link

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Making news headlines this morning is BHP Billiton. Shares were up 3.48% to $46.50 on Tuesday. The mining giant has bought a 40 per cent interest in 14 offshore oil & gas licenses near the Falkland Islands. BHP signed the contracts with British minnow Falkland Oil for rights to explore and possibly produce oil and natural gas from the area. BHP will reimburse Falkland $10 million in historical costs and has agreed to drill a minimum of two exploration wells in the next three years. BHP has posted increasing record earnings since 2003.

Shares in Anvil Mining were up 2.55% to $20.10. The company's VP of exploration said Anvil is rushing to boost resources at its flagship Congo copper mine boost outputs. Apparently the current resource of 1.6 million tonnes of copper has the potential to double. The mine is Anvil's flagship operation and is expected to grow to 110,000 tonnes of annual output by 2010. Anvil Mining posted record earnings in 2006.

And briefly, Rio Tinto has received anti-trust approval from the European Commission for its proposed acquisition of Canadian aluminium maker Alcan.

To international markets, US markets were mixed on profit taking and after some more depressing housing news; The Dow Jones Industrials closed 40 points weaker, the S&P500 was steady and the Nasdaq composite advanced 6 points.

European shares were mixed after banks further clarified the impact of the credit markets crisis on their results; London's FTSE lost 6; Paris added 26, and Frankfurt rose 24.

To Asia, where Hong Kong's Hang Sang soared 1,057; Tokyo's Nikkei was up 201; and China's SSE Composite was closed once again.

Back to the US ?gold finished sharply lower on profit-taking and as the dollar continues to strengthen. Gold closed $17.80 weaker to $736.30 US an ounce for the spot contract on Comex, Silver was dropped 41 cents to $13.45, copper was up 2 cent to $3.71.

And finally, oil lost 19 cents to finish at $80.05 a barrel for November light crude in New York.

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

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