After mixed leads from Wall St the local market opened softly and held that trend throughout the day. By the close of trade the All Ords had slipped 30 points or 0.6% to close at 5347. The ASX200 also gave up 0.6% to finish at 5352.
It’s the second straight day the market has closed lower. Low volumes were the order of the day while comments from Carl Icahn overnight that US markets could see a ‘big drop’ certainly dampened offshore investor sentiment.
Continuing on the theme of dampening sentiment the RBA minutes for the November meeting were released today. No surprises here.
The local unit remains "uncomfortably high" for the central bank. Despite the jawboning the currency was largely unmoved holding at just under 94 cents. If and when the US begins to taper remains a key for the local unit.
Looking across the sectors defence was the best form of attack with Healthcare the only green on the screen posting a 0.8% gain. Red across all other sectors with Industrials leading the way down -1.1%, Telcos -0.8%, IT -0.7%, Financials -0.6% and Materials off -0.5%.
S&P/ASX 200 Gainers and Losers
GPT finally lobbed in a $2.99bn bid for Commonwealth Property Office Fund (CPA) today. Gate-crashing the already agreed $2.8bn deal with Dexus Property and a Canadian pension fund, the GPT offer saw CPA shares bid higher. Both the suitors in Dexus and GPT closed lower while Investa Office looked to benefit from the activity in the sector.
Top 5 Gainers;
• CPA COMMONWEALTH PROPERTY OFFICE FUND +4.98%
• MGX MOUNT GIBSON IRON LIMITED +3.70%
• SHL SONIC HEALTHCARE LIMITED +2.65%
• SIR SIRIUS RESOURCES NL +2.44%
• IOF INVESTA OFFICE FUND +2.22%
Gold stocks were messy again today with Perseus leading the way down again. Not far behind were St Barbara, Silver Lake and Northern Star. Network Ten remains a lucky dip and gave back yesterday’s gains and then some. Ten shareholders are due to meet on December 18 to vote on a related party transaction involving a $200 million loan from the Commonwealth Bank.
Top 5 Losers;
• PRU PERSEUS MINING LIMITED -11.11%
• TEN TEN NETWORK HOLDINGS LIMITED -6.90%
• ASL AUSDRILL LIMITED -5.88%
• CDU CUDECO LIMITED -5.00%
• SBM ST BARBARA LIMITED -4.62%
