Australian Market Report

Provided by The Australian Investor

Thursday 27th September 2001

Afternoon trading pushed the Aussie market forward yesterday ignoring the indifferent US markets, as the banking and insurance sectors pushed the market further into positive territory. The All Ordinaries finished the day up 27.6 points (1 per cent) to 2932.1 while the S&P/ASX 200 gained 28.3 (1 per cent) to 2991.

Leading the market were the banking stocks, the bank index up 167.8 points (2.2 per cent) to 7729.7. Macquarie Bank led the sector, up $1.00 (2.9 per cent) to $35.33 after announcing it planned to expand into the specialised global funds market. ANZ meanwhile gained 78 cents (4.8 per cent) to $15.49 and Westpac gained 33 cents (2.6 per cent) to $12.91.

Insurance stocks also recovered after an unhappy last two weeks, the insurance index up 168.4 points (2.7 per cent) to 6397.6. AXA Instruments gained 12 cents (5.4 per cent) to $2.56, Suncorp-Metway was up 58 cents (5.2 per cent) to $11.69 and QBE up 2 cents to $5.53

Resource stocks also pushed forward, the resource index up 15.9 points (1.2 per cent) to 1289.3. Anaconda Nickel sky-rocketed 16 cents (31.4 per cent) to 67 cents, Woodside Petroleum regained 55 cents (4.3 per cent) to $13.34 while BHP gained 17 cents to $8.54. Not sharing the same fortunes were Newcrest Mining which plummeted 31 cents (8.2 per cent) to $3.49, Lihir Gold which lost 5 cents (4.8 per cent) to $1.10 and PacMin which shed 5 cents (4.5 per cent) to $1.05.

Reduced US consumer confidence weakened media stocks, with the media index down 252.6 points (1.1 per cent) to 23642.1. Concern about the US advertising market sent News Corporation down 28 cents to $12.32, Seven Networks lost 6 cents to $6.47 while PBL recovered 16 cents to $8.46

Resmed gained 51 cents to (5.3 per cent) to $10.09 after announcing its CHF treatment had displayed positive results, Aristocrat gained 37 cents (6.8 per cent) to $5.78, the Australian Gas Light Company lost 41 cents (4.5 per cent) to $8.79 and Coles Myer retreated 18 cents (2.5 per cent) to $6.98 after Standard and Poor's announced it was considering a re-appraisal of Coles Myer's 'A-' long-term debt rating.

- Industrials

The S&P/ASX 200 Industrials index gained 46.7 points (0.9 per cent) to 5174.2

- Resources

The S&P/ASX 200 Resources index gained 16.1 points (1.3 per cent) to 1302.3

- Gold

The gold index dropped 2.5 points to 820.4

- AUD

At 1600 local time the Aussie dollar was trading at:

$US 0.4942 up from 0.4927
Euro 0.535 down from 0.5386
Yen 57.89 up from 57.82
$NZ $1.2158 down from $1.216
Stg 0.3359 down up from 0.337

- Asian Markets

In TOKYO, The Nikkei dropped 52.3 points (1.5 per cent) to 9641.7

In HONG KONG, The Hang Seng gained 157.9 points (1.8 per cent) to 9368 by the end of the first session

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