Disclaimer: All information on this section is of a general nature.
Before making any investment decision, you should consult your adviser.
Market Opener – 02 Feb 2018
Local Markets Commentary
The Australian market commences Friday trade onuninspiring overnight international equities leads butgood gains for a couple of key commodities.
Locally today, December quarter producer prices aredue from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)11.30am AEDST.
In overnight commodities trade, US gold futuressettled higher.Oil rallied further.
Iron ore (China port, 62% Fe)continued lower, albeit slightly again.LME copper settled barely changed but nickelextended Wednesday’s rally.
The $A appreciated to ~US80.40c after trading at~US80.25c early yesterday evening.
Overseas Markets Commentary
Major European and US equities markets mostlyopened lower overnight, varying fortunes from thereon seemingly mostly influenced by a plethora ofcorporate results.
US sovereign bond sales again proved significant,pushing yields higher.
Among a batch of mixed US economic indicators,ISM’s January manufacturing PMI was reported 0.2lower for the month, at a nonetheless robust 59.1.
December quarter labour costs rose 2%.
January vehicle sales appeared to disappointoverall.
Tonight in the US, January employment statistics,December factory orders and a final JanuaryUniversity of Michigan consumer sentiment indexare due.
AstraZeneca, BT Group, Chevron, Deutsche Bank,Exxon Mobil, Merck, Philips 66 and Sony are amongcompanies scheduled to report earnings or providetrading updates.
In overnight corporate news, Royal Dutch Shellbooked a 140% rise in December quarter profit to$US4.3B.
$US35.65B 2017 cash flow represented a$US15.03B increase for the year.
The stock fell ~2.5% however, on weaker-thanToday’sStock WatchJames Hardie Industries (JHX)Raising the base of the company’s full-year adjusted operatingprofit range from $US245M to $US260M, the range now set at$US260M - $US275M.
For the nine months to 31 December, NPAT fell 12% to$US203.7M.Adjusted operating profit rose 6% to $US205.5M.Net sales grew 7% to $US1.5B, supported by $US495.1M netsales for the December quarter.
Vocus Communications (VOC)Former KPMG Australia managing partner markets Julie Fahey isjoining the VOC board today as a non-executive director.Ms Fahey’s other directorships include with IRESS (ASX: IRE)and Seek (ASX: SEK).
Thorn Group (TGA)TGA director and former Suncorp CEO David Foster has beenappointed TGA chair after Joycelyn Morton stepped down fromthat role yesterday morning.
DroneShield Ltd ( DRO)US regulatory approval in hand to proceed with a governmenttender awarded late-2017 in Paraguay.
TasFoods Ltd (TFL)Anticipating a $2.1M 2017 goodwill impairment in relation to theShima Wasabi acquisition.
Investa Office Fund (IOF)UBS has cancelled IOF sell advice, replacing it with a neutralrating.
ResourcesLucapa Diamond Company ( LOM)The Angola Lulo diamond JV sold 4170 carats of diamonds for agross $US9.14M at the first 2018 sale.
Hexagon Resources ( HXG)MoU secured with China National Building Materials – GeneralTechnology Co (CNBM-GT) for 30% of primary production fromHXG’s WA McIntosh graphite project.
Under the non-binding agreement CNBM-GT also plans tosupport HG with some form of project development finance.
Altech Chemicals (ATC)Malaysia high-purity alumina project $US190M debt packagefinalised with Germany’s government-owned kfW IPEX-Bank.OceanaGold Corporation (OGC)Expecting to produce 480,000oz – 530,000oz of gold and15,000t – 16,000t of copper at a $US725/oz - $US775/oz ASICduring 2018.
EnergyAWE Ltd (AWE) / Mineral Resources (MIN)Earlier this week, AWE invited MIN to match Mitsui’s proposed95c cash-per-share takeover by close of business today.
State One Stockbroking Limited – Market Opener Friday, 2 February 2018Page 2 of 3anticipated December quarter cash flow, pushingthe FTSE 100 lower.Vodafone trade also adversely impacted the FTSE100, the company dropping ~4.5% on fallingrevenue.Glencore revealed 2017 copper output had dropped8% to 1.3Mt, but forecast 1.5Mt for this year.
Unilever delivered a €8.15B 2017 profit against€7.47B for 2016.
Turnover improved 1.9% to€53.7B, supporting a December quarter year-onyeardividend increase.Facebook, which had reported post-US tradeWednesday, advanced ~2%.Microsoft was pushed ~1% lower despite aDecember quarter report that exceeded industryexpectations.
Alibaba dropped ~4% after undershootingDecember quarter profit, but sales came in higherthan-anticipated,at $US12.8B.
eBay traded ~10% higher, at record highs, onplans to take back some control of customerpayments from PayPal, and on a better-thanexpectedDecember quarter.
Alphabet (fell~3% post-trade), Amazon (38%higher, $US60.5B sales), Apple have reported postovernightUS trade, and thus will influence tonight’smoves.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabi’s Aramco was said to bekeen to establish, with Alphabet, a technologycentre within Saudi Arabia.
The Australian market commences Friday trade onuninspiring overnight international equities leads butgood gains for a couple of key commodities.
Locally today, December quarter producer prices aredue from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)11.30am AEDST.
In overnight commodities trade, US gold futuressettled higher.Oil rallied further.
Iron ore (China port, 62% Fe)continued lower, albeit slightly again.LME copper settled barely changed but nickelextended Wednesday’s rally.
The $A appreciated to ~US80.40c after trading at~US80.25c early yesterday evening.
Overseas Markets Commentary
Major European and US equities markets mostlyopened lower overnight, varying fortunes from thereon seemingly mostly influenced by a plethora ofcorporate results.
US sovereign bond sales again proved significant,pushing yields higher.
Among a batch of mixed US economic indicators,ISM’s January manufacturing PMI was reported 0.2lower for the month, at a nonetheless robust 59.1.
December quarter labour costs rose 2%.
January vehicle sales appeared to disappointoverall.
Tonight in the US, January employment statistics,December factory orders and a final JanuaryUniversity of Michigan consumer sentiment indexare due.
AstraZeneca, BT Group, Chevron, Deutsche Bank,Exxon Mobil, Merck, Philips 66 and Sony are amongcompanies scheduled to report earnings or providetrading updates.
In overnight corporate news, Royal Dutch Shellbooked a 140% rise in December quarter profit to$US4.3B.
$US35.65B 2017 cash flow represented a$US15.03B increase for the year.
The stock fell ~2.5% however, on weaker-thanToday’sStock WatchJames Hardie Industries (JHX)Raising the base of the company’s full-year adjusted operatingprofit range from $US245M to $US260M, the range now set at$US260M - $US275M.
For the nine months to 31 December, NPAT fell 12% to$US203.7M.Adjusted operating profit rose 6% to $US205.5M.Net sales grew 7% to $US1.5B, supported by $US495.1M netsales for the December quarter.
Vocus Communications (VOC)Former KPMG Australia managing partner markets Julie Fahey isjoining the VOC board today as a non-executive director.Ms Fahey’s other directorships include with IRESS (ASX: IRE)and Seek (ASX: SEK).
Thorn Group (TGA)TGA director and former Suncorp CEO David Foster has beenappointed TGA chair after Joycelyn Morton stepped down fromthat role yesterday morning.
DroneShield Ltd ( DRO)US regulatory approval in hand to proceed with a governmenttender awarded late-2017 in Paraguay.
TasFoods Ltd (TFL)Anticipating a $2.1M 2017 goodwill impairment in relation to theShima Wasabi acquisition.
Investa Office Fund (IOF)UBS has cancelled IOF sell advice, replacing it with a neutralrating.
ResourcesLucapa Diamond Company ( LOM)The Angola Lulo diamond JV sold 4170 carats of diamonds for agross $US9.14M at the first 2018 sale.
Hexagon Resources ( HXG)MoU secured with China National Building Materials – GeneralTechnology Co (CNBM-GT) for 30% of primary production fromHXG’s WA McIntosh graphite project.
Under the non-binding agreement CNBM-GT also plans tosupport HG with some form of project development finance.
Altech Chemicals (ATC)Malaysia high-purity alumina project $US190M debt packagefinalised with Germany’s government-owned kfW IPEX-Bank.OceanaGold Corporation (OGC)Expecting to produce 480,000oz – 530,000oz of gold and15,000t – 16,000t of copper at a $US725/oz - $US775/oz ASICduring 2018.
EnergyAWE Ltd (AWE) / Mineral Resources (MIN)Earlier this week, AWE invited MIN to match Mitsui’s proposed95c cash-per-share takeover by close of business today.
State One Stockbroking Limited – Market Opener Friday, 2 February 2018Page 2 of 3anticipated December quarter cash flow, pushingthe FTSE 100 lower.Vodafone trade also adversely impacted the FTSE100, the company dropping ~4.5% on fallingrevenue.Glencore revealed 2017 copper output had dropped8% to 1.3Mt, but forecast 1.5Mt for this year.
Unilever delivered a €8.15B 2017 profit against€7.47B for 2016.
Turnover improved 1.9% to€53.7B, supporting a December quarter year-onyeardividend increase.Facebook, which had reported post-US tradeWednesday, advanced ~2%.Microsoft was pushed ~1% lower despite aDecember quarter report that exceeded industryexpectations.
Alibaba dropped ~4% after undershootingDecember quarter profit, but sales came in higherthan-anticipated,at $US12.8B.
eBay traded ~10% higher, at record highs, onplans to take back some control of customerpayments from PayPal, and on a better-thanexpectedDecember quarter.
Alphabet (fell~3% post-trade), Amazon (38%higher, $US60.5B sales), Apple have reported postovernightUS trade, and thus will influence tonight’smoves.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabi’s Aramco was said to bekeen to establish, with Alphabet, a technologycentre within Saudi Arabia.