Australian shares close higher for 4th straight day on upbeat results |
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Thu, 23 Aug 2007 07:49
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SYDNEY (Thomson Financial) - Australian shares closed higher for the fourth consecutive session on Thursday with investor confidence boosted by a string of upbeat earnings reports and a bullish business outlook from the world's biggest miner, BHP Billiton.Wall Street's positive showing Wednesday also underpinned the gains.With fears of a global credit crunch now easing, financial stocks came to the fore, providing key support for the market. Both Citigroup and Fitch Ratings, in separate reports, said they did not expect Australian banks to encounter any material problems from the troubled US subprime mortgage market.Fitch said Australian banks have limited exposure to the subprime market, either directly or through structured credit products, and while wholesale funding has become more expensive in the wake of the troubles, the major banks have large retail deposit bases to help cushion them.The S&P/ASX 200 index ended up 154.7 points or 2.6 percent at 6,159.7, after trading between 6,016.1 and 6,177.7.The All Ordinaries index closed up 152.3 points or 2.5 percent at 6,149.7, after trading between 6,164.5 and 6,149.7.Winners outnumbered losers 955 to 343, with 286 stocks unchanged.Volume traded reached 2.36 billion shares, worth 8.28 billion Australian dollars.The S&P/ASX200 September futures contract rose 131.0 points to 6,153.0.The yield on the 10-year bond gained 0.06 percentage points to 5.935 percent while the yield on 90-day bills fell 0.004 percentage points to 6.843 percent.(1 US dollar = 1.23 Australian dollars)yuinmunn.szetoh@thomson.comys/mbCOPYRIGHTCopyright AFX News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News.
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Australian shares close sharply higher on Wall St rise; rate hike shrugged off 