Sydney, Nov 2, 2007 (ABN Newswire) -
The share market dived today. The sell-off was triggered by a very shaky performance from Wall Street overnight with more fall-out from the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis.
The full report is available at the following video and audio links.
Video Link
http://abnnewswire.net/fnnlnk/05LJ5C2GAudio Link
http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/GSZTN339Let's go to the markets to see how they finished up. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed down 132 points to 6697, and is down 4 points on the week. On the futures market the SPI 200 plunged 147 points.
Looking to US indices now: The Dow Jones industrial Index fell 239 points over the four day trading week. The S&P 500 shed 27 points, the NASDAQ lost 9, and the 100 index bucked the trend managing to gain 2 points.
Turning to company news now: OneSteel says it will slash 99 jobs next year when a wire mill in Melbourne closes in March. The Australian Workers' Union state secretary says the decision to close the mill was greedy and short-sighted. AWU national secretary Bill Shorten says he hopes there will be no forced redundancies from the closure. OneSteel says some workers will be redeployed to other mills. Shares in OneSteel ended the session 2.68% lower at $6.89, but gained 1.77% on the week.
And Ansell has reaffirmed its guidance for 2008 of between 56 and 60 cents per share for the coming year. Ansell chairman Peter Barnes told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting that the company's balance sheet remained strong. He said the company has low gearing and strong cash flows and is well positioned for profitable expansion. He also flagged there was a negative variance in Ansell's results on conversion to Australian dollars as the company operates in U.S. dollars. Shares in Ansell ended the session 1.75% lower at $12.34, but gained 1.56 per cent on the week.
Taking a look at some of the week's main stories now? The board of Jubilee Mines has unanimously recommended Xstrata's $3.1 billion offer. The bid was pitched at $23.00 a share, 35 per cent higher than Jubilee's closing price last Friday. Xstrata Nickel plans to establish a regional base in Western Australia managed by the existing Jubilee team. The board says the offer enables Jubilee's significant growth potential to be fully realized. Shares in Jubilee Mines ended the session 2.28% lower at $23.55, but are up 37.72% on the week.
And Telstra surprised the market by raising its 2008 profit forecast. Australia's largest phone company now says its full year earnings before interest and tax will rise between 5 and 7 per cent in fiscal 2008 from the previous forecast of 3-5 per cent. The telco has put the improved performance down to cost cutting, and increased revenue from 3G mobile phone use. Telstra is currently two years into a five year program aimed at slashing costs and reducing the company's dependence on shrinking revenue from fixed line phones. Shares in the Telstra ended the session 1.7% higher to close at $4.79, and are up 1.27% on the week.
And now to today's best and worst performers.
The best performing index was the Telecommunications index gaining 27 points to 1701, while the worst performing index was the Materials index shedding 535 points to 15613.
AGL Energy was the best performer in the S&P/ASX top 200 today rising 2.92% to $13.03; Alesco and Resmed also made gains.
At the other end of the index; Downer EDI was the worst performing stock losing 12.8% to $5.79; Murchison Metals and MFS Limited also finished lower.
The Aussie dollar is currently fetching 91.78 U.S cents and is steady on the week.
Gold is trading at $790.80 U.S an ounce and gained $5.80 on the week's trading.
And finally, oil is 45 cents firmer at $93.94 U.S a barrel and is up $2.07 on the week.
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