The local share market looks set for a nervous start this morning following a mixed lead on Wall St overnight. However a rise in oil and metal prices may help boost resource stocks today.
On Tuesday the local market ended lower with the S&P/ASX 200 Index down 121 points to 3,797 and on the futures market the SPI200’s down 15.
Checking currencies at 8:30am the Aussie dollar is buying 79.36 US cents. On the cross rates the dollar is trading at 75.55 Yen, 56.39 Euro cents and 48.25 British pence.
In company news: Shares in James Hardie Industries (ASX: JHX) fell 1.19 per cent to $4.15. The company says it plans to make changes to remuneration packages for senior management to make long term incentives more closely aligned with performance targets. James Hardie says the amendments to the remuneration framework for senior management will allow an independent committee to determine whether all or some of the incentives are granted. The building materials maker says it will ask for shareholders to approve the changes at the company’s annual general meeting in August. James Hardie Industries posted a $71.6 million U.S. loss in 2008.
Shares in Otto Energy (ASX: OEL) lost 5.33 per cent to 7.1 cents. The oil and gas company has announced that it has replaced its CEO Alex Parks with Paul Moore, effective from July 1. The move comes after a tough past year for the company with production mishaps at the company’s Galoc oilfield in the Philippines and a joint venture with BHP which fell through. Mr Moore is a former executive manager with Woodside Petroleum and Santos. Chairman Rick Crabb says the appointment of Mr Moore will help the company move into its next phase of growth and development. Otto Energy has posted net losses over the last five years.
Turning to the ex-dividend scoreboard and among those companies going ex-dividend today we have Australian Infrastructure Fund, Babcock & Brown Japan Property Trust, Centro Retail Group, Challenger Infrastructure Fund, Dexus Property, ING Office Fund, Macquarie Office Trust, Stockland, Transurban Group and Transfield Infrastructure Fund.
To international markets: US markets closed mixed - The Dow Jones industrial average fell 16 points. The S&P500 Index gained 2 points and the NASDAQ dropped 1 point.
European markets also closed mixed: London’s FTSE down 4, Paris fell 6 and Frankfurt added 14 points.
Asian markets were lower: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng tumbled 521. Tokyo’s Nikkei fell 277 and China’s SSE Composite dropped 4 points.
Looking at Metals: Gold is $3.30 higher at $924.30 US an ounce, for the August contract on Comex. For the July contract, Silver is up 14 cents to $13.85 US and copper gained 7 cents to $2.21 US.
And finally oil is $1.74 stronger to $69.24 US a barrel for August light crude in New York.