Sharemarket News: 29 Jul 2010
The Australian share market fought back from brief losses sparked by yesterday's weaker than expected inflation figures to close about 0...
.6 per cent higher.
Bureau of Statistics figures show inflation was a smaller than expected 0.6 per cent in the June quarter, taking annual headline inflation to 3.1 per cent.
The Reserve Bank's preferred measure of underlying inflation also rose by a weaker than forecast 0.5 per cent over the quarter to an annual rate of 2.7 per cent.
That is within the RBA's 2-3 per cent target band.
The share market slipped into the red shortly after the figures were released and the dollar tumbled more than half a cent.
However, by the close of trading, the All Ordinaries Index had rallied 28 points to 4,542, and the ASX 200 finished the day 32 points higher at 4,530.
In other news, the Queensland-based miner Macarthur Coal reported a fall of almost 11 per cent in its fourth-quarter sales, but it achieved record overall sales for the last financial year.
Its full-year sales were up 15.3 per cent to 5.32 million tonnes.
Macarthur's shares closed 0.5 per cent higher at $12.98.
Gold miners came under pressure after spot gold prices fell overnight.
Lihir Gold says it met expectations for production in the June quarter, with output up 6 per cent from the previous quarter.
The company also says its merger with Australia's biggest gold miner, Newcrest, is on track.
Lihir lost 0.7 per cent today, while Newcrest closed down 28 cents to $32.78.
Engineering services firm Downer EDI jumped almost 6 per cent to $4.82 after winning a $2 billion, five-year contract with the BHP Billiton - Mitsubishi Alliance at its Queensland coal mines.
BHP Billiton and Rio closed more than 1 per cent higher.
The big four banks gained between 1.3 and 1.9 per cent.
Currencies and commodities
The Australian dollar fell sharply to 89.57 US cents on the smaller than expected rise in consumer prices.
On the cross-rates, it was worth 78.76 Japanese yen; 68.83 euro cents, 57.38 pence Sterling and $NZ1.225.
On commodity markets, West Texas crude oil was worth $US77.56 a barrel, and a barrel of Tapis was quoted at $US80.65.
Spot gold eased to $1,163.25 an ounce.
SOURCE: ABC News
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