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Monday, July 4, 2011

Australian share market rose Monday July 4 2011

Australian share market rose Monday July 4 2011 : The Australian share market rose Monday following the surge on Wall Street Friday, but disappointing domestic economic data and comments from Standard & Poor's that sovereign debt rollover plans may put Greece in "selective default" capped gains.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 closed up 19.5 points, or 0.4%, at 4610.7, after hitting a four-week high of 4640.1. Trading volume was light because of the Independence Day holiday in the U.S.

On the charts, the market was trending up after bouncing strongly off a 10-month low of 4451.7. But Monday's price action indicated resistance near the 50-day moving average at 4644.0, according to Dow Jones Newswires technical analysis.

Asian shares rose Monday, with China's Shanghai Composite ending up 1.94% and Japan's Nikkei Stock Average closing 1% higher, after the S&P 500 rose 1.4% on Friday on encouraging U.S. manufacturing data.

"Offshore leads are positive and the Australian market has a lot of catching up to do," Morgan Stanley Smith Barney Vice President Shannon Briggs said. "Investors aren't exactly rushing in, but there's still very good value out there."

The Australian market trimmed its reaction to Wall Street's rise after May retail sales fell 0.6% versus an expected 0.3% rise. Building approvals fell 7.9% versus an expected 0.5% decline.

Standard & Poor's comments on Greece further damped bullish market sentiment.

S&P said leading proposals for easing repayment terms on Greece's sovereign debt by rolling over maturing debt would amount to a default under the ratings firm's criteria. It said both proposals would represent the sale of "distressed" debt, and that both would return less value to bond holders than they would have seen under the original terms of their investment.

Industrials led broad-based gains, with Qantas up 6.5% at A$1.97 and Virgin Blue up 8.8% at A$0.315 after Australia's air safety regulator grounded Tiger Airways' Australian operations for a week.

Tiger said it is committed to a long-term future in Australia, but analysts said damage to its brand will be difficult to overcome.

"If Tiger were to walk away from Australia because of brand damage and ongoing losses, obviously that would be very positive for Virgin and Qantas," Briggs said.

Treasury Wine Estates rose 8.6% to A$3.67 after Bloomberg reported that two unnamed people familiar with the matter said China's Bright Food had internal talks about making a takeover bid.

But after the close of trading, Bright Food's general manager of public relations, Pan Jianjun, told The Wall Street Journal that the company hasn't been negotiating with Treasury Wine Estates and hasn't considered any plan to buy it.

Murchison Metals fell 2.0% to A$0.75 after falling to a record low of A$0.605 intraday on cost overruns and delays on its iron ore projects in Western Australia state. Costs for the Oakajee iron ore export project, jointly managed with Japan's Mitsubishi Corp., increased by more than a third to A$5.94 billion and first ore won't be delivered until 2015.

In resources, BHP Billiton rose 0.6% to A$44.02 and Fortescue Metals rose 1.4% to A$6.48.

UBS said BHP completed its on-market share buyback Wednesday, suggesting the diversified miner may be in a position to announce further capital management initiatives at its first-half results on Aug. 24.

Australia's major banks mostly weakened slightly, but Macquarie bucked the trend to rise 1.2% to A$31.50. For the latest updates PRESS CTR + D or visit Stock Market news Today

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