To: Bharvin K. R. Patel who wrote (23703 ) 11/16/1997 9:01:00 PM From: Glenn D. Rudolph Respond to
Australian stocks up at midday,all eyes on Telstra
Reuters Story - November 16, 1997 20:04
%&64 %AU %STX %.AX TLSCAX NDYX LHGX NCMX PGU.TO BHPX WMCX NABX WBCX MBLX BPCX BORX RIOX WPLX CBAX ANZX NCPX LLCX CCLX V%REUTER P%RTR
---------------(Snapshot 12.00 p.m. (0100 GMT)-----------------
AORD 2491.6 +12.5 DJIA cl 7572.48 +84.72
SPI Futures 2500 +31 US 30yr cl 6.10 unch
10yrbond futs 94.025 -0.010 Gold NY 303.45 Asia 303.25
AUD US$0.6964 (Fri US$0.6972) CRB Index cl 241.72 -1.42
NIKKEI 15540.86 +458.24 FTSE cl 4741.8 +30.8
S&P500(Globex) 935.30 +2.70 NZSE40 2395.22 -1.74
--------------------------(Nov 17)-----------------------------
*Stocks hold on to U.S. inspired gains at midday, investors
await Telstra's debut. Volume 86.69 mln, A$226.94 mln
value, 751 stocks traded, 225 steady, 257 up, 269 down.
SYDNEY, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Australian shares were mainly
higher at midday on Monday on the back of Friday's U.S. gains,
although weaker miners and gold producers held back the All
Ordinaries index to some degree.
All eyes were on the listing of telecom giant Telstra's
instalment receipts at 12.30 p.m. (0130 GMT). Bids
were at A$2.82, a 41 percent premium to the institutional offer
of A$2.00, half an hour before official quotation was to start.
"There is only one thing to talk about today. I think people
are a little bit surprised over how strong the bidding (for
Telstra) is," said director Geoff Burrell of Burrell & Co.
"The institutions we've spoken to thought A$2.20 to A$2.30
would have been a reasonable open, but it's certainly looking
like A$2.50 right now. Most of the support seems to be between
A$2.40 and A$2.50," Burrell said.
The one-third float of the government-controlled company is
the largest capital raising in Australian history at A$14.3
billion and was 4.5 times oversubscribed.
The gold sector took another blow, losing 4.0 percent,
following the weekend's fall in the price of bullion. Normandy
fell four cents to A$1.41, Lihir Gold eight to
A$1.74 and Newcrest 18.3 cents to A$1.51.
"Golds are generally very poor and are going to continue
that way for a while," Burrell said. Many brokers expect more
gold mine closures after Pegasus Gold announced it
would close its Mount Todd mine in northern Australia due to too
high production costs at current prices.
Dealers said investors continued to be fairly keen on the
higher yielding banking sector, but remained cautious about
resource stocks. Blue chip miner BHP shrank 15 cents to
A$13.95, while WMC lost 28 to A$5.12.
Among the banks, National Australia Bank rose 29
cents to A$20.75, and Westpac 28 cents to A$8.99.
Macquarie Bank rallied 20 cents to A$11.90 after
reporting a sharp increase in half-year profit to A$64.3 million
from A$46.0 million and a dividend of 21 cents per share
compared to 18 cents the corresponding 1996/97 period.
Troubled food group Burns Philp & Co climbed 7.5
cents to 34.5 cents on news of a A$300 million recapitalisation
and that banks had agreed to a debt standstill until December
19. Building products group Boral traded one cent up at
A$3.77 after it said first quarter results were ahead of budget,
but that its Asia division was likely to incure modest losses in
the near term due to the economic crisis there.
---------------------FEATURES/KEY ACTIVES-----------------------
*Rio Tinto A$16.75 (+.04) *Woodside Petroleum
A$11.30 (+.09) *Commonwealth Bank A$17.30 (+.25) *ANZ
Bank A$10.22 (+.13) *News Corp A$7.27 (+.05)
*Lend Lease A$28.00 (+.624) *Coca-Cola Amatil
A$10.95 (+.25)
U.S. gains Friday and early Tokyo gains help lift leaders.
-- Martina Barsoum, Sydney Newsroom 61-2 9373 1800
email address: sydney.newsroom reuters.com
