Sydney, Oct 12, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - The Australian market could cool today, with a drop on Wall Street prompting investors to book profits following the market's recent record breaking run; but higher oil and metal prices could underpin the resource sector.

On Thursday the S&P/ASX200 rose 34 points to settle on 6,772, a record high for the third straight session; on the future's market the SPI200 is down 26.

Turning to currencies, the Australian dollar rallied to a 23 year high in offshore trade against the weak US currency this morning but failed to hold on after a drop on Wall Street. At 8:45AM the dollar is buying 90.1 US cents, on the crosses it's buying 105.75 yen, 63.46 Euro cents, and 44.31 British pence.

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

Video Link

http://abnnewswire.net/fnnlnk/6ZX1D19B


Audio Link

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Making headlines this morning is Terramin, shares in the miner were up 2.22% to $2.76. Terramin could start producing zinc and lead concentrates from its Algerian mine by 2011, according to a Reuters report. Company officials say there's an 80 per cent chance the mine will produce large quanities of zinc ore and concentrate, with lesser quantities of lead. Production estimates could be finalised by the end of this year. The project has the potential to make the miner one of world's the top 10 zinc producers, according to one company official. Terramin has been operating at a loss since 2002.

Shares in Allco Finance Group were up 0.66% to $9.20 on the ASX yesterday. Major ratings agencies are warnings about loose lending practices at Mobius, an Allco subsidiary. In a rare move, Moody's Investor Service has put some Mobius bonds on watch for a possible downgrade, citing higher-than-expected levels of default among its equipment leases portfolio. Mobius was the worst-performing lender in Australia, with more than 15 per cent of its securitised loan portfolio in arrears of more than 90 days. Allco said Mobius does not have a material impact on the company's earnings profile. Allco Finance Group saw earnings jump significantly in 2007 from the previous year.

To international markets, US markets were lower, with tech stocks dragging on the Nasdaq; the Dow Jones Industrials shed 64 points and the S&P lost 8 points, and the Nasdaq composite lost 39 points.

European shares were stronger; London's FTSE was up 92; Paris was up 24, and Frankfurt closed 47 points firmer.

To Asia, where Hong Kong's Hang Sang soared 564; Tokyo's Nikkei advanced 281; and China's SSE Composite advanced 142.

Back to the US, gold futures rose sharply by midday ending up $10.70 to $756.70 US an ounce for the spot contract on Comex, Silver rallied 32 cents to $13.99, but copper lost 3 cents to $3.67.

And finally, oil added $1.78 to $83.08 a barrel for November light crude in New York.

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

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