Australian Stocks: What Happened Today?

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            [0] => ((NCM))
            [1] => ((WES))
            [2] => ((DML))
            [3] => ((SBM))
            [4] => ((TWE))
            [5] => ((MTU))
            [6] => ((SLR))
            [7] => ((SXY))
            [8] => ((CPL))
            [9] => ((TSE))
            [10] => ((BLY))
            [11] => ((SKE))
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            [0] => NCM
            [1] => WES
            [2] => DML
            [3] => SBM
            [4] => TWE
            [5] => MTU
            [6] => SLR
            [7] => SXY
            [8] => CPL
            [9] => TSE
            [10] => BLY
            [11] => SKE
        )

)

This story features WESFARMERS LIMITED, and other companies.
For more info SHARE ANALYSIS: WES
The company is included in ASX20, ASX50, ASX100, ASX200, ASX300 and ALL-ORDS

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

Australian Market

The Australian market (XJO) closed down -32.6 points or 0.69% to 4724.5 today. Our market is following suit once again from global markets. The Dow Jones fell -116.57 points or -0.76% to 15,122.00 with more stimulus fears surfacing including some backlash from the Bank of Japan's statements about not expanding their own stimulus efforts.

The market moved lower early in the session and made its low of 4710.1 at around 1pm before making a small come back to the close. All sectors were in the red except for Telecommunication Services which gained 0.26%, the rest ranged from -0.10% to -0.97%, ASX 200 Energy fell the most.

Gold miners Newcrest ((NCM)) have been enquired into by the ASX, claiming it has breached share market rules. The ASX stated that the timing of a major restructure (NCM announced last Friday that they are closing its Brisbane office and making asset write-downs of up to $6 billion in value as part of measures to deal with a weakening gold price) coincided with the down grading of three separate analysts views on the company's share price. Newcrest says it acted in compliance with listing rule 3.1, which requires listed companies to immediately announce information that could move its share price.

Wesfarmers' ((WES)) retail chain Target has made a total of 260 staff members redundant from the Geelong head quarters today. Management earlier told the more than 1000 Geelong staff to be at work this morning for an announcement on expected job cuts. It is believed that the redundancies are spread across all departments.

The Westpac/Melbourne Institute index of consumer sentiment numbers for June rose 4.7% to 102.2 points, indicating that most of the people surveyed were optimistic about the economy.

AUD is currently trading at $0.9432, up $0.0008 against the USD.

Top Performers

Discovery Metals Limited ((DML)) up $0.015 or 8.33% to $0.195

St Barbara Limited ((SBM)) up $0.035 or 5.38% to $0.685

Treasury Wine Estates Limited ((TWE)) up $0.21 or 3.58% to $6.07

M2 Telecommunications Group Limited ((MTU)) up $0.19 or 3.52% to $5.59

Silver Lake Resources Limited ((SLR)) up $0.025 or 2.99% to $0.86
 
Bottom Performers

  Senex Energy Limited ((SXY)) down -$0.04 or -6.90% to $0.54

Coalspur Mines Limited ((CPL)) down -$0.15 or -6.38% to $0.22

Transfield Services Limited ((TSE)) down -$0.05 or -6.33% to $0.74

Boart Longyear Limited ((BLY)) down -$0.038 or -5.71% to $0.627

Skilled Group Limited ((SKE)) down -$0.14 or -5.67% to $2.33

Our Comments

Late comeback by the market, must be near a low! The Nikkei staged a good comeback as well. Astounding how the Australian market is under performing the US market at the moment so heavily but I digress.

A common theme I hear from investors at the moment is the unfavorable outlook on the Australian economy. Firstly let me say we are in a different world to some countries out there at the moment. Imagine being a University student in Spain, Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Italy and to some degree the UK where you will not get a job after graduating for anywhere up to a decade in the field you have chosen.

In relation to the market, the economy and the market are two totally different things – in interest cutting cycles and low interest rate environments markets perform very well whilst this is never good for an economy. The Australian economy has some headwinds but is in a great place in relation to the world. We will see substantial growth in our market over the next couple of years but you have to expect hiccups along the way.

(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

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