TCL Says ‘No’ Again To Bids
‘No’, said Transurban for a second time in seven months to cheap takeover approaches from two big Canadian investment funds, this time with the added firepower from a big local investor.
Read MoreShares
Budget: Steady As You Go, But Savers Get A Gong
As Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan was handing down the 2010-11, sharemarkets were falling, the euro was wiping out all the gains from Monday, oil, copper and other commodities weakened, but gold rose and investors fretted about Chinese inflation and signs the strong economic growth in that economy had peaked.
Read MoreChina’s April Performance Raises Questions For Australia
A mixed month for the Chinese economy and therefore for Australia.
Read MoreGlobal Markets Head Downwards
If Europe had indeed been ‘saved’ forever, then the euro would have kept climbing yesterday.
Read MoreAsciano Sneaks Out A $1.1 Billion Write- Down
Port Group, Asciano took advantage of federal budget day to slip out a $1.1 billion write-down in the value of its ports business because of the imminent arrival of a third stevedore in Brisbane and in Melbourne over a couple of years.
Read MoreTransfield-Transurban
And Transfield Services and its 47.5% owned associate, Transfield Infrastructure Fund, also revealed a big move on budget day with the news of a capital raising and asset sale designed to raise $300 million.
Read MoreBudget: Economy Slowing In Some Areas
Tonight’s 2010-11 Federal budget will be framed against a national economy showing signs of tiredness in some areas, solid growth though in Asia, but a worrying questioning of sovereign debt coming out of Europe.
Read MoreEurope Self Funds Bailout, With Help
Unprecedented is often used for huge deals or surprise switches in policy.
Read MoreTCL Encircles Sydney
Transurban Group has bought Sydney’s Lane Cove Tunnel for $630.5 million and revealed plans to raise more than half a billion dollars from shareholders to pay for it and planned upgrades of two other Sydney roads.
Read MorePeabody Penny Pinches Macarthur Offer
US coal giant Peabody Energy has used the proposed resource rent tax to chisel $1 a share from its offer for Macarthur Coal
Read MoreIPL Confirms Guidance
Shares in chemicals and explosives maker Incitec Pivot rose yesterday after the company revealed lower earnings before one-off items and indicated it will see higher profits in the second (current) half of the year.
Read MoreEurope Reveals Defence
Europe is poised to mount the largest ever defence of a currency in the next few hours.
Read MoreDIARY: Budget, Markets, Unemployment
Our budget, some sort of rescue plan for Europe and those volatile markets will all dominate business here and offshore this week.
Read MoreOil Sold Off
Oil and the US dollar had a more traditional relationship last week than gold.
Read MoreGold Booms
Oil down as the US dollar jumped, gold up as fear rose.
Read MoreMarkets Await The News
There’s an awful lot riding on the markets accepting the workability and credibility of the proposed European support mechanism.
Read MoreNZ Faces Rate Rise After Jobless Rate Falls
New Zealand has moved closer to getting an interest rate rise after its strongest jump in employment for 24 years, a point seemingly acknowledged by Reserve Bank Governor, Alan Bollard, in a speech yesterday.
Read MoreCorporates: Brambles, Santos, Sims, AMP
A mixed collection of trading updates issued yesterday through the ASX.
Read MoreEconomy’s In A Strange Place
The Australian economy is in an odd place at the moment.
Read MoreIt’s The Nab’s Turn As Banks Underwhelm Market
The National Australia Bank has joined its rivals in the ANZ and Westpac in producing interim earnings that failed to ignite much interest.
Read MoreUK Election: Better To Lose Than Win
What an election to lose.
Read MoreMarkets: Fears Back
Welcome to reality, once again.
Read MoreNot Such A Good Result From Westpac
Yesterday’s fear-driven sell-off locally followed overseas leads, so it was natural that banks and other groups exposed to risk should be sold off as well.
Read MoreSolid Result From News
News Corp’s third quarter results were boosted by Avatar and another strong showing by the group’s cable business, but investors were not all that impressed.
Read MoreCar Sales Surge
Australian car sales jumped sharply in April as buyers ignored the impact of five interest rate rises that had made many of them more hesitant when going to shopping malls.
Read MoreBuilding Approvals Figures Confuse
The latest building approvals from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show a seasonally adjusted rise of 15.3% for total dwelling units approved in April, after falls in the previous two months.
Read MoreWestfield More Confident
Despite those slowing sales from its Australian retailing powerhouse, shopping centre giant, Westfield Group is looking to start building again.
Read MoreRetail Slowdown Spreading
Australian retailing seems to have ground to a halt.
Read MoreRates Up, Inflation The Target, More Rises Will Happen
We had better get used to the idea that more interest rates are on the way.
Read MoreHastie Downgrades, Shares Unhurt
Shares in air-conditioning engineer and contractor, Hastie Group, withstood a nasty 7.6% fall in early trading yesterday after the company revealed a profit downgrade, and the purchase of another company.
Read MoreNewcrest Gets Its Gold
Less than a day later the kneejerk reaction by some investors in selling their mining shares was exposed as short-sighted by the $9.5 billion reworked agreed merger between Newcrest and Lihir Gold.
Read MoreRetailing Slump Growing?
Slowly, a surprise fall in retailing activity seems to be taking shape.
Read MoreThe Economy: Lighting A Fire Under Rates
Suddenly an interest rate rise is very much on the cards today and probably next month and several more later in the year.
Read MoreBoart’s Surprise Upgrade
Just as Orica is seeing some upturn in demand for its services from the mining industry, so too is drilling services group, Boart Longyear seeing improved interest from the drilling sector.
Read MoreOrica To Float Consumer Business After Solid Interim Result
Yum went the market yesterday after Orica returned to the task of floating off its consumer paint and garden products business, while reporting a reasonably solid interim result for the 2010 financial year.
Read MoreKneejerk Tax Reaction Clouds Bigger Stories
So what was the big story yesterday?
Read MoreMore On The Tax Changes
The changes are:
Companies
- The company tax rate to be cut from 30% to 29% in 2013/14, then to 28% from 2014/15
Small business
- The tax rate to be cut to 28% from 2012-13. It is expected to affect 720,000 businesses.
- The immediate write-off of assets valued at less than $5000 (from July 1, 2012)
- Small businesses will be able to write-off all other assets (except buildings) in a single depreciation pool at a rate of 30 per cent. (from July 1, 2012)
Small Miners
- To receive Resource Exploration rebate of 30% without having to offset against profit.
- Definition of exploration to include geothermal energy.
Both measures will boost the small exploration sector.
Read MoreTax Changes: The Winners
The sharemarket, investors and self-managed super funds and small business look the big winners, from the tax changes announced yesterday.
Read MoreDiary: Oil, Greece, Tax, Pates, Profits, Jobs
Quite a week ahead: interest rates and house prices in Australia, fallout from the Henry Tax Review, jobs figures in the US, the Goldman Sachs saga, the Greek collapse or rescue tale, the BP Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, an election in the UK and quite a bit else
Read MoreWoolies Sales Lose Momentum
Woolworths has blamed the absence of federal government stimulus spending for the fall in sales growth and the actual falls in its Big W and consumer electronics businesses in the March quarter.
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