Afternoon (PM) Market Report

Details

Published on Thursday, 25 August 2016 07:00

The local market opened lower today on the back of losses on Wall Street overnight and earnings losses reported by Woolworths.

Thursday, 25th August 2016

The market briefly broke through the flat-line at 12:30pm however this was short-lived as it closed lower, with investors remaining cautious ahead of the US Federal Reserve speech on Friday. There were mixed results from the sectors; consumer staples gained most significantly while materials were the biggest laggard. The Australian dollar gained against most major currencies.

The All Ordinaries dropped 22.20 points (-0.39%) to 5,631.40 while the S&P/ASX 200 fell 19.80 points (-0.36%) to 5,541.90.

CIMIC Group announced that the group's mineral processing company, Sedgman, has been awarded a 3-year contract extension by Red Mountain JV (RMJV) to continue operations at the RMJV's coal handling and preparation plant (CHPP) in the Bowen Basin, Queensland. The contract, with revenue of $75m, continues Sedgman's operation and maintenance of the CHPP until June 2019, with the potential for an additional 2 years after the initial period. Separately, Thiess, the Co's mining services provider, has expanded its mining services contract at the Lake Vermont Coal Mine in Queensland's Bowen Basin, and will design and build an additional processing module at the CHPP, generating revenue of $30m. Engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of the module will be undertaken by Sedgman. CIM lost 1 cent (-0.03%) to $30.99. Iluka Resources reported a net loss after tax of $20.9m, compared with a $20.4m profit in the first half of 2015. zircon/rutile/synthetic rutile (Z/R/SR) volumes increased by 14.7% (to 316.4 thousand tonnes) with a full half of synthetic rutile sales volumes. Z/R/SR revenue was $321.1m, up by 3.0% from first half 2015. Cash production costs of $140.7m were $34.8m or 19.8% lower than the first half of 2015, reflecting the cessation of US operations (in December 2015); the suspension of mining and concentrating at Jacinth-Ambrosia (from 15 April 2016) and the completion of mining of the Woornack, Rownack, Pirro deposits in the Murray Basin. Directors have determined an interim dividend of 3.0cps, fully franked. The dividend is payable on 6 October 2016 for shareholders on the register as at 9 September 2016. ILU lost 53 cents (-7.15%) to $6.88.

The NZX 50 added 16.98 points (0.23%) to 7,427.28 while the Nikkei dropped 41.35 (-0.25%) points to close at 16,555.95.

The Australian dollar was last quoted at 76.25 US cents.