Daily FNArena News - Australia

Asciano intends to raise $2bn via a series of capital raisings and brokers see the outcome as reasonable.

Westpac investigates the effects of government stimulus on retail sales.

A new report by BIS Shrapnel suggests the Australian housing market is set to enter a period of sustained recovery in coming years.

One Aussie oil junior is set to exploit the fact, but the market is yet to jump on board.

April housing finance figures for Australia show investors have now joined first home buyers back into the market.

Potential for BHP/Rio Tinto to move to an owner-operator system implies additional downside risk for contractors like Leighton Holdings.

Positive news begets more positive news and this feeds into increased confidence. It worked for Australian consumers in June.

Brokers have found little not to like about the new BHP-Rio deal, despite Rio’s rather large and heavily discounted rights issue.

ANZ’s latest survey into job ads in newspapers and on the internet in Australia suggests unemployment figures will continue rising.

National Australia Bank’s latest survey of business conditions and confidence levels showed enough positives for the bank to revise up its Aussie growth forecast for 2009.