Sydney, Oct 15, 2007 (ABN Newswire) -
Australian shares rose to fresh lifetime highs today with resource firms like BHP and Woodside Petroleum hitting new peaks on record high oil and firmer base metal prices.
At Midday the S&P/ASX200 index is up 6 points to 6,755 and on the futures market the SPI- 200's is up 1 point.
In company news this hour, Qantas's passenger numbers improved in August, increasing by 7.7 per cent, compared to the same time last year. According to preliminary traffic figures, The group - comprising Qantas Domestic, QantasLink, Jetstar and Qantas International ? says revenue passenger kilometers rose 7 per cent in August, available seat kilometres were up 3.1 per cent, resulting in a revenue seat factor of 81.8 per cent in the month. Budget carrier, Jetstar's passenger load also increased, jumping by 17.7 per cent while Qantas International passenger load was the worst, dropping by 5.5 per cent. In recent developments the national carrier says it had taken recently increased its fuel hedging for 2007/08. Shares in Qantas are steady at $5.96.
The full report is available at the following video and audio links.
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http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/L551OOHYAustralia's Publishing and Broadcasting Limited says it's reassessing plans to split its media and gaming assets as it considers the implications of proposed tax changes to the deal, sending its shares lower. PBL, controlled by Australia's richest man James Packer, says the Australian government had proposed changes to the tax regime which may impact the deal if no demerger relief is available. The company has told its shareholders the implications need to be assessed by the PBL board to determine whether the proposed demerger remains in its best interests. PBL said in May it planned to split its media and gaming interests into two listed companies and return $2 billion in cash to shareholders. Shares in PBL are down 5.32 per cent to $19.40.
And now to warrants with Macquarie bank, Investors have punished Australia's largest energy retailer AGL after the company cut its 2008 profit forecast due to higher costs and lower margins. Warrants traders believing today's weakness is overdone bought upside leveraging to a bounce through a number of Instalments, with AGKIMD May08 $13.00 Instalment the highlight here.
The top banks have all peeled back from early strength despite the Commonwealth Bank confirming that it was confident of delivering earnings per share growth above the average of its peers in fiscal year 2008. Warrant traders anticipating ANZ to continue its strong run from last week looked to ANZWM1 Nov07 $31.00 Call.
Turning now to market indices, the index posting the biggest gain by percentage points is the Energy which is up 180 points to 16,176. Shares in Energy Resources are up 2.93 per cent to $19.34. Shares in Woodside Petroleum and Caltex are also higher.
The worse performing index by percentage points in the Ultilities, which is down 375 points to 6,977. Shares in AGL Energy are down 15.87 per cent to $13.15. Shares in Babcock and Brown Power and Challenger Infrastructure are also lower.
And now let's take a look at regional markets, in Tokyo, the Nikkei is up 40 points and in New Zealand the NZ-SX-50 is up 20.
Gold is currently trading at $751.50 US an ounce and one Australian dollar's buying $90.51 U.S cents.
Source: Finance News Network © 2007
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