Dollar Worries Drag On Market
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday May 21, 2003
Concerns about the impact on earnings of adverse currency exchange rates continued to weigh on the sharemarket yesterday as old rumours gained a new lease of life.
The S&P/ASX 200 fell 12.9 points to 2935.7 and the All Ordinaries fell 14c to 2908.5 after some disappointing company results and the weakening US dollar dragged down Wall Street on Monday night.
The Dow Jones fell 185.6 points to 8493.4, the S&P 500 fell 23.5 to 920.8 and the Nasdaq fell 45.8 to 1492.8.
The rumour mill cranked up towards the close as Foster's fell at the same time as Southcorp rose, sparking speculation that Foster's was planning to raise $1 billion to take over the financially challenged wine-maker.
Foster's closed down 1c to $4.21 and Southcorp rose 16c to $3.07.
Brokers rumoured to be handling the placement, Macquarie and UBS Warburg, denied any involvement.
British Airways' ##133 million ($327.4 million) loss for the fourth quarter reignited speculation the airline would consider selling its 19 per cent stake in Qantas. Shares in Qantas fell 6c to $3.13.
Elsewhere, Futuris rose 6c to $1.68 as attention centred on the possibility AWB might be planning a tilt. Shares in AWB fell 3c to $3.59.
As the Australian dollar hovered above US65.5c, companies exposed to US dollar earnings came under pressure.
News Corp fell 29c to $11.01, BHP Billiton fell 13c to $8.28, and Rio Tinto fell 52c to $29.58.
Dental materials maker SDI, which relies on overseas markets for 94 per cent of sales, rose 22c to $6.57, thanks to favourable currency hedging.
The insurance sector lost ground as investors raised funds to take part in IAG's $200 million capital raising.
IAG will issue a new batch of reset preference shares to fund its recent $1.86 billion acquisition of CGU and NZI insurance companies from Britain's Aviva.
Recently listed Promina fell 1c to $2.07, AMP fell 15c to $5.05 and QBE fell 18c to $8.55.
Much of the bank sector continued to weaken as ANZ fell 13c to $18.10, Westpac fell 7c to $15.63 and NAB 15c to $31.90.
CBA bucked the trend, rising 16c to $26.66 after the bank said it was confident of achieving satisfactory earnings growth for 2002/03.
Lihir rose 3c to $1.51 and Newcrest rose 17c to $7.67 after the gold price surged to a three-month high of $US366.1.
Rinker, formed earlier this year when CSR spun off its US construction businesses, fell 16c to $4.64 after the company declined to make a profit forecast because of the fluctuating exchange rates.
CSR fell 2c to $1.79 after delivering a higher-than-expected net profit of $2.05 billion for 2002/03, including a gain of $1.5 billion resulting from the demerger of Rinker.
Westfield's $1.9 billion cash bid for AMP Shopping Centre Trust turned the
spotlight on the property trust sector. Westfield rose 5c to $3.55, General
Property Trust rose 3c to $3.01 and AMP Shopping Centre Trust rose 5c to $1.80.
MONEY $A/US ? 65.58 -0.09 TWI 58.1 +0.2 90-day bank bills 4.760 -0.010 3-year bonds 4.595 +0.030 10-year bonds 4.965 +0.040 YESTERDAY'S MOVES Rises 442 Falls 641 Steady 343 Jun SPI 2929.0 -26.0 ASX 200 2935.7 -12.9 Financials 3861.2 -5.4 Industrials 3235.4 -17.4 Energy 3925.1 +6.1 Volume Value 734.5m 2.085bn WINNERS Southcorp +5.50% Aquarius Platinum +4.06 Futuris Corp +3.70 Oxiana Resource +3.51 Roc Oil +3.45 Kingsgate +3.12 Hills Industries +2.91 Lion Nathan +2.90 AMP Shopping +2.86 SFE Corp +2.50 LOSERS Jubilee Mines -4.71% SMS Management -4.65 Sons of Gwalia -4.15 Cochlear -3.62 Gribbles Group -3.45 Rinker Group -3.33 James Hardie -3.32 Energy Development -3.16 News Corp-pfd -3.00 Billabong -2.96
© 2003 Sydney Morning Herald