Afternoon (PM) Market Report

Details

Published on Monday, 29 August 2016 07:00

The Australian market had a disappointing start to the week, weighed down by index heavyweights Wesfarmers and Woodside as they traded ex-dividend, amid growing local worries about the impact of the Fed's monetary policy on the market.

Monday, 29th August 2016

Most sectors performed negatively, with only telecommunication services eking out small gains. The Australian dollar appreciated against most major currencies.

The All Ordinaries lost 45.90 points (-0.82%) to 5,561.50 while the S&P/ASX 200 fell 46.30 points (-0.84%) to 5,469.20.

AWE announced that commercial gas sales from Stage 1A of the Waitsia gas project have commenced and that the development was delivered on time and within the approved budget of $18m ($9m net to the Company). Stage 1A comprised the installation of new infrastructure to connect the Waitsia-1 and Senecio-3 gas wells to the upgraded Xyris Production Facility (XPF). The XPF has been successfully commissioned and production capacity of 10 TJ/d has been achieved. Gas is being delivered to the Parmelia pipeline with Alinta Energy taking up to a Maximum Daily Quantity of 9.6 TJ/day under a 2.5 year Take or Pay gas sales agreement. The Company is focused on moving towards Stage 2, a full field development phase that would increase production capacity up to 100 TJ/d. AWE dropped 1.5 cents (-2.16%) to $0.68. Beach Energy provided FY2016 full year results presentation. The Company reported Record production of 9.7 MMboe, up 6%; Underlying NPAT down 61% to $36m; Year-end liquidity of $550m. The Company announced commissioning of new production facilities at Stunsail and Pennington. During the year, drillsearch merger has completed. The Company also reported Strong balance sheet with no net debt; net cash to equity ratio of 4.9%. The Company has paid full year dividend of 0.5 cps, fully franked. The Company expecting increased production of 9.7 \u0096 10.3 Mmboe. BPT remained unchanged at $0.55. Vicinity Centres announced that it has entered into a contract for the sale of Tweed Mall in NSW for $81.25m. The book value of Tweed Mall was $70.0m as at 30 June 2016. Tweed Mall is being sold to Elanor Investors Group and the transaction is expected to settle on or around 31 October 2016. VCX lost 3 cents (-0.89%) to $3.33.

The NZX lost 24.04 points (-0.33%) to 7,367.26 while the Nikkei added 376.78 points (2.30%) to close at 16,737.49.

The Australian dollar was last quoted at 75.49 US cents.