Sydney, Oct 15, 2007 (ABN Newswire) -
Well after moving into record territory again this morning the market shied away from further gain finishing the session in the red. AGL Energy was the catalyst for the fall after releasing news of an earnings downgrade.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed down 10 points to 6739
To company news now, the Commonwealth Bank has made it through the world-wide credit crunch and says it's actually gained market share in the process. The nation's biggest lender also says it's confident of meeting its fiscal 2008 earnings per share growth target. Chief executive Ralph Norris says he's confident in the ability of the group to again deliver earnings per share growth for the full year which meets or exceeds the average of their peers. The news comes as most of the major banks had predicted some customers of non-bank lenders would switch to the big banks ? being less exposed to the volatile debt markets because of their larger deposit bases. Shares in the Commonwealth Bank closed 0.69% lower at $59.38.
Online travel firm travel.com.au says its independent directors have recommended a revised bid from Wotif.com. Travel.com said in a statement its directors found the wotif.com $55 million offer superior to rival Webjet's bid. Wotif.com has also moved to take in a 19.5 per cent stake in Travel.com at 55 cents per share. Travel.com.au offers flights, accommodation and travel packages, and owns the lastminute.com.au site. Shares in Travel.com.au closed 1.61% lower at 61 cents.
The full report is available at the following video and audio links.
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http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/80Y5C491In other news today, shares in iron ore miner Midwest Corp rose on news rival Murchison Metals said it would offer the higher of two bids previously proposed for company.
Metcash has announced it's sold the last of its former Action supermarkets in Western Australia.
Diversified property group, Mirvac, has sold property at the Gold Coast's Hope Island Resort for $53 million.
Shares in Stonehenge Metals shot up before they were placed on a trading halt. The securities will remain in pre-open until the 17th of October or when an announcement from the company is released to the market.
And online broker IWL has posted a strong increase in its first quarter earnings. The lift in earnings came as the volume in equities, options, and CFD's increased by 26 per cent on fiscal 2007.
Now to today's best and worst performers, the best performing index today was the Telecommunications index gaining 11 points to 1642, while the worst performing index was the Utilities index shedding 391 points to 6961.
Mt Gibson Iron was the best performer in the S&P/ASX top 200 surging 9.39% to $2.68; Paladin Resources and Beach Petroleum were also in favour today.
AGL Energy was the worst performing stock today diving 16.63% to $13.03; IRESS Market and Origin Energy also lost investor support.
Gold is currently trading at $755.40 US an ounce and light crude is 2 cents weaker at $83.67 US a barrel.
Source: Finance News Network © 2007
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