The Australian market rebounded to above 5000 points today after Wall Street gained on hope of upbeat US corporate earnings. On Wednesday, investors would look to consumer sentiment data from Wespac and Melbourne Institute. The local market fell back to below the 5000 points level on a weaker performance in Asian markets. Today Asian shares were mostly higher following the positive lead from Wall Street.
Key Economic Facts and Figures
The Westpac/Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index fell by 1 per cent in April from March. In annual terms, the consumer sentiment index rose a seasonally adjusted 25.2% in April. This is a result better than expected, signalling the confidence might be resilient to higher interest rates. The Reserve Bank of Australia has raised the official cash rate for five times since October last year.
Company News
Macquarie Group Limited (
Japan's Toho Zinc Co.(
Canada-based Viterra Inc. (
Viterra says Summit Grain Investment, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sumitomo, expects to exercise its right under the shareholder's agreement to acquire all of the shares of ABA owned by Viterra. ABA will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Sumitomo.
The purchase was triggered as a result of the change in control of Viterra's Australian operations, arising from Viterra's acquisition of ABB Grain in September last year. ABA's storage network consists of eight country sites in Victoria and New South Wales as well as the ABA grain terminal at the Port of Melbourne.
OZ Minerals Limited (
An exploration program is scheduled to commence immediately. IMX's Mt Woods tenements are largely contiguous with OZ Mineral's tenements which contain the Prominent Hill copper mine in South Australia.
IMX Managing Director said the joint venture means a very significant increase in expenditure at Mt Woods, well in excess of what IMX could afford.
Australian paper merchant and manufacturer PaperlinX Ltd (
It will close its Burnie Mill in Tasmania, with the balance of operations already closed. On completion of the closure, PaperlinX will solely become a merchant with business distributing paper, sign and display, graphics solutions and industrial packaging to a wide range of customers in Australia, New Zealand and Asia, Europe and North America.
Last year, PaperlinX completed an A$700 million sale of its manufacturing arm, Australian Paper, to Japan's Nippon Paper (
PaperlinX said the overall total net cash cost of its exit from Tasmania is expected to be around A$10 million to A$20 million. PaperlinX managing director, Tom Park, said the exit from Tasmania would cost the company less than it expected originally.
The company now is focussed on completing refinancing programme and on ensuring its competitive position is as robust as it can be in the uncertain economic times.
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