Groundhog day with more records overnight on Wall St, the local market unable to hold onto the highs of the session, more economic data surprising to the upside and more developments in the Victorian cheese war.
As a lead in the Dow rose by 0.2% to a new record high at 16,097, while the NASDAQ closed at a fresh 13 year high of 4,045. The local market was flat and unable to match that performance.
At its best levels our market was up 34 points but packed it in after lunch and by the close the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up only 1.7 points, or 0.03%, at 5,326.6. The All Ords was also up a meagre 1.4 points, or 0.03%, at 5,334.3.
Health +0.9% and IT 0.7% were the best performing sectors on the day. Financials +0.2% were again doing the heavy lifting offsetting losses elsewhere as Consumer Staples -0.8%, Energy -0.4%, Industrials -0.4% and Utilities -0.2% all lost ground on the day.
Westpac added 0.7% to $33 and Comm Bank 0.9% to $78.02 and National Australia Bank 0.1% to $34.54. ANZ was the exception to the rule and dipped 0.1% to $32.04.
Capex data for the September quarter was out today from the ABS. The print surprised to the upside with business investment rising by 3.6% in the quarter. Consensus expectations were for a fall of -1.2%.
As with the equities market the good economic data did nothing to help the currency and the local unit was trading at 91.23 US cents, down marginally from Wednesday’s 91.26 cents.
Forge Group (FGE) got poleaxed after it came out four week trading halt today. The stock closed at 68 cents 83.7% down on where it opened on the day. The company has increased their debt facility with ANZ from $11 million to $60 million. ANZ also has the option of shares in Forge through warrants equivalent to 13% of FGE equity.
More action in the cheese wars today with Murray Goulburn lifting its offer to $9.50. The Canadians are still at $9.20 and with Bega (BGA) heavily reliant on scrip is this the knockout blow? Who knows but it’s a long way from Bega’s initial offer back in September when Warrnambool (WCB) shares were trading at $4.51. Today WCB went into another halt at $9.32 while Bega was higher at $4.74 up 1.94%.
And a bit of action in the retail sector today with Specialty Fashion (SFH) purchasing the Rivers brand. The market liked the deal with SFH shares jumping 5.06% to close at 83 cents. At a purchase price of $5m for a 28-year-old brand with 160 stores doing $180m turnover the deal looks bargain basement for SFH. Time will tell what skeltons are in the Rivers closet.
S&P/ASX 200 Gainers and Losers
Top 5 Gainers;
• MMS MCMILLAN SHAKESPEARE LIMITED +9.27%
• SEK SEEK LIMITED +5.89%
• EWC ENERGY WORLD CORPORATION LTD +5.56%
• ANN ANSELL LIMITED +3.84%
• QAN QANTAS AIRWAYS LIMITED +3.81%
Top 5 Losers;
• FGE FORGE GROUP LIMITED -83.61%
• ASL AUSDRILL LIMITED -5.88%
• MND MONADELPHOUS GROUP LIMITED -5.15%
• SIR SIRIUS RESOURCES NL -4.87%
• BLY BOART LONGYEAR LIMITED -4.76%
