Australian Stocks: What Happened Today?

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This story features MCLAREN MINERALS LIMITED.
For more info SHARE ANALYSIS: MML

By Stephen Hogan, Senior Private Client Adviser, Equities/Derivatives

Australian Market

The Australian market (XJO) closed down -43.5 points or 0.91% to 4737.7 today. Today was the 3rd straight negative day for the Australian market. We saw several attempts during the day to try and rally but all had been rejected, closing near the low of 4733.7. Overnight the Dow Jones rose 80.03 points or 0.53% to 15,040.60 with all eyes on the U.S. non-farm payrolls figures out tonight. Gold has yet again been the worst performing sector of the day, down -4.81% and Telecommunications have finished up the best sector, adding 0.64%.The ASX200 is now up just 0.67% for 2013.

Newcrest Mining had made some announcements today. They are cutting jobs and closing its Brisbane office in response to falling gold prices. ''Corporate office and support functions will be further rationalized, resulting in a reduction of at least 20% in corporate costs and the closure of the Brisbane office,'' the company said. The miner will record an impairment of up to $6 billion in coming months. After conducting a review of the business, Newcrest management has outlined cost cutting programs, drastically reduced the value of its assets and cut its production targets for the 2013/14 financial year. It says exploration activities will be significantly reduced and costs in all of its operations cut. Capital expenditure forecasts for 2013/14 have been reduced by $500 million. The value of gold fell by about 17% in April and May. Newcrest also announced there would be no dividend for the year to June 30, 2013. Newcrest staff numbers will be cut hard and fast; chief executive Greg Robinson said between $50 million and $75 million worth of redundancies would be processed and completed within the next 23 days.

Oil and gas producer, Santos (STO) said it discovered natural gas through an exploration well in Australia's Browse Basin in Western Australia

AUD is currently trading at $0.9508, down $0.0083 against the USD.

Top Performers

Energy World Corporation Limited (EWC) up $0.042 or 10.50% to $0.442

Treasury Wine Estates Limited ((TWE)) up $0.23 or 3.95% to $6.05

Virgin Australia Holdings Limited ((VAH)) up $0.015 or 3.37% to $0.46

Macquarie Atlas Roads Group ((MQA)) up $0.06 or 3.28% to $1.89

Magellan Financial Limited ((MFG)) up $0.26 or 2.97% to $9.01
 
Bottom Performers

  Medusa Mining Limited ((MML)) down -$0.285 or -10.08% to $2.355

Fairfax Media Limited ((FXJ)) down -$0.043 or -7.29% to $0.547

Newcrest Mining Limited ((NCM)) down -$0.96 or -7.19% to $12.40

Atlas Iron Limited ((AGO)) down -$0.05 or -6.02% to $0.78

Billabong International Limited ((BBG)) down -$0.013 or -5.91% to $0.207

Our Comments

Buys everywhere on the market today, have a feeling we are going to get a strong bounce here very soon and today may have been the low.

Enjoy the long weekend!

(For a more comprehensive summary of last night’s market action see FNArena’s Overnight Report.)
 

Re-published with permission. Views expressed are not by association FNArena's (see our disclaimer).

Stephen Hogan is an Authorised Representative of Novus Capital. Authorised Representative No.345411 – http://www.stephenhogan.com.au

Novus Capital Limited ("Novus") is holder of Australian Financial Services Licence No 238 168. Novus, its directors, officers, associates and employees each declare that they, from time to time, may hold interests in financial products and/or earn brokerage, commission, fees or other benefits from financial products mentioned in this e-mail or attached documents. Unless specifically stated within this e-mail or an attached document, any information communicated by this e-mail constitutes unsolicited general financial product advice which has been compiled without regard to any investor's individual objectives, financial situation or needs. It is not specific advice for any particular investor. Before making any decision about the information provided, you need to consider the appropriateness of this information having regard to your individual objectives, financial situation and needs and consult your adviser. Any indicative information and assumptions used here are summarised and also may change without notice to you, particularly if based on past performance or relate to a future matter.

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