Overnight Wall Street retreated as investors were nervous about company earnings and concerning the health of financial system. After the closing bell, Alcoa reported a consecutive quarterly loss at the start of the reporting season.
Yesterday the Australian share market is lower after the RBA's rate cut announcement. The S&P/ASX200 index fell 1.3%, or 50.3 points, at 3706.3, while the broader All Ordinaries index was down 1.3%, or 47.9 points, at 3648.9.
Key Economic Facts and Figures
Reserve Bank of Australia has cut interest rates by 25 basis points to 3 per cent, the lowest level in 49 years.
The survey by the Westpac-Melbourne Institute showed its index of consumer sentiment jumped 8.3 percent, or 7.1 points, to 92.7 in April. The improvement is largely due to rising share markets, low interest rates and the government's stimulus plan outweighed a grim forecast for jobless rate.
Today Australian Bureau of Statistics will unveil housing finance data for February.
M&A News
Australian Commercial Property Trust (ASX:ARN) has confirmed it has sold four properties for a total of A$32 million.
Blaze Asset, jointly owned by Advance Energy (ASX:AVD) and Odin Energy (ASX:ODN), has make a bid for Target Energy (ASX:TEX), offering 1c per share and three Advance shares for every four Target shares.
Important Corporate News
Flight Centre (ASX:FLT), Australia's biggest travel agency, expects its annual profit to fall by more than two-thirds due to a sharp fall in air travel during economic downturn. Flight Centre said it expected to report a net profit of between A$36 million and A$44 million for the year to June 30, comparing with a net profit of A$143.15 million in the previous financial year.
The newly announced CEO of PMP (ASX:PMP), Richard Allely, will take a large cut in base pay and incentives. He also said there will be major changes in the company. The printing and distribution group's print operations will be mostly affected.
The National Australia Bank (ASX:NAB) said it would not follow RBA to cut its interest rate as its funding costs remained high. The Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) has said it will only pass on a cut on its standard variable home loans by 10 basis points to 5.64 per cent.
Telstra (ASX:TLS) has raised new hope to become involved in the government's A$43 billion national broadband network program. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd yesterday announced a company jointly owned by the government and private sector will be created to build and operate the broadband network.
Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) will slash 705 jobs, including full time and contractor positions at its Queensland bauxite, alumina and aluminium operations.
Southern Cross Goldfields Ltd (ASX:SXG) announced today that ongoing field studies, compilation and interpretation of all previous exploration data has highlighted over 100 high priority drill targets, most with potential for large, stand-alone, high margin gold deposits in the Central Yilgarn area of Australia.
Contact
Michelle LiangAsia Business News Asia Bureau
Tel: +61-2-9247-4344
Email: michelle.liang@abnnewswire.net
Related Companies
National Australia Bank Limited
Flight Centre Travel Group Limited
Commonwealth Bank of Australia
Australian Commercial Property Trust
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