Australian shares turn negative on profit-taking, AGL under pressure

Australian shares turn negative on profit-taking, AGL under pressure

	Published : Mon, 15 Oct 2007 04:01 By : Agencies Print this Story

SYDNEY (Thomson Financial) - Australian shares were barely changed midway through the session on Monday after strong gains during morning trading were trimmed by financial stocks bearing the brunt of a late morning sell-off.

The nation's leading energy retailer AGL Energy was leading the falls after trimming its June year profit guidance while Publishing & Broadcasting was also under pressure after deferring de-merger plans.

'PBL and AGL are dominating everything at the moment and that's what has led to the falls,' said Rick Klusman, head of institutional trading at Aequs Securities.

At 12.45 am (0345 GMT), the S&P/ASX 200 was down 4.8 points or 0.1 percent at 6,744.1 after breaking through the 6,800 barrier earlier in the session to reach a fresh all-time intra-day peak of 6,800.2.

The All Ordinaries index was down 2.9 points at 6,757.2 after hitting a record 6,809.3 in the morning session.

Klusman said investors took PBL and AGL's announcements as a cue to lock in profits after the market's rise to fresh record highs early in the session.

'The banks were up nicely but are all are down now except NAB, while BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto are up on continued offshore buying,' he said.

National Australia Bank was up four Australian cents at 41.80 dollars.

Commonwealth Bank was down 34 cents at 59.45 dollars despite saying its earning momentum was maintained in the September quarter despite volatility on credit markets. ANZ was off 34 cents at 31.26 and Westpac was off 13 cents at 29.53 dollars.

BHP Billiton was up 40 cents or 0.8 percent at 46.60 dollars after reaching a record 47.28 dollars in morning trade while Rio Tinto was up 1.12 dollars or 1 percent at 112.82 dollars.

AGL Energy was down 2.59 dollars or 16.6 percent at 13.04 dollars after slashing its earnings guidance because of a squeeze on margins and a higher Australian dollar.

'I think AGL's sell-off is overdone - it's been as high as 18 dollars this year and has traded comfortably over 16 dollars for some time,' Klusman said.

Publishing & Broadcasting was down 84 cents or 4.1 percent at 19.65 dollars after deferring a shareholder meeting for the second time because of tax issues surrounding its plan to split its gambling business from its media operations and return two billion dollars to shareholders.

PBL needs to gain shareholder approval at a meeting to proceed with the de-merger.

(1 US dollar = 1.11 Australian dollars)

bruce.hextall@thomson.com

bhx/ng

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