Daily FNArena News - Australia

With the Melbourne Cup next week betters are assessing form guides and economists are doing the same to determine just how high Australian interest rates may go.

Westpac showed yesterday why it had been the broker’s top banking pick for many months.

ROC Oil has so far found dust in Angola, while AWE succeeds across the Ditch. Macarthur coal just keeps running into an infrastructure wall.

Having confirmed previous approaches and requested a trading halt to consider an updated expression of interest brokers assess whether a bid for Nufarm is likely given current valuations.

Harvey Norman delivered a surprise upgrade to earnings guidance yesterday but while brokers have lifted earnings estimates the view is the stock is fully or even over-valued at current levels.

Both UBS and Credit Suisse have downgraded Boart Longyear to Neutral from Buy but the latter remains positive on the longer-term outlook given a positive earnings outlook and upside from acquisitions.

Aditya Birla recorded a disappointing first-half result yesterday and the result is cuts to earnings and downgrades to ratings.

It’s unlikely Perseverance shareholders can do better than Northgate’s 20c offer.

Paladin has advised production will not meet previous estimates and brokers have revised forecasts accordingly, while views remain mixed as to the stock’s outlook.

Xstrata has launched a takeover offer for nickel producer Jubilee and this is likely to trigger share price increases throughout the sector today, analysts say.