The market is up 4. The SFE Futures were down 4 this morning.

The Dow Jones closed up 5 overnight. Quiet session with the Dow being up 21 at best and down 77 at worst. Better than expected earnings and a rise in consume confidence helped the Dow finished in the black. Metals were mostly mixed on the LME, the gold price fell 30c to $1138.60 and the oil price increased 3c to $82.55c. The Aussie dollar fell 98.54c from 99.05c.

Today’s main points…

  • The National Australia Bank (NAB) FY result is out. Looks better than expected. FY cash profit came in at $4.6bn, up 19.3% from $3.84bn. Analysts on average expected $4.49bn. Declared a ff final dividend of 78c a shares payable on 17 Dec, which was also ahead of forecasts of 76c. NAB up 2.8% to 2545c. ANZ reports tomorrow and is up 1.6% to 2424c.
  • Stockland Group(SGP) has sold its 13.1% stake in GPT Group (GPT) via a book build at 275c a share. They acquired the 243m shares in November 2008 at 360c a share. SGP up 1c to 379c and GPT down 3c to 282c.
  • Fortescue Metals (FMG) has priced US$2.bn of 2015 year notes carrying an annual interest rate of 7%.
  • Karoon Gas Australia (KAR) has launched an IPO of its South American assets to raise about US$621m-US$773m. Karoon will retain ownership of 68.1% of the assets in Brazil and Peru, which will be listed on the Brazilian stock exchange. KAR down 3.4% to 975c.
  • Toll Holdings (TOL) in a trading halt “pending the release of an announcement responding to today’s press speculation with regard to CEO Paul Little”. Last traded at 664c. The Australian reported this morning that Little would announced his retirement at the company’s AGM on Friday.
  • Lynas Corp (LYC) down nearly 7% to 145c after one broker this morning downgraded the stock to Neutral from Overweight due to the recent run in its share price. LYC is up 166% this financial year.
  • Downer EDI (DOW) up 5c to 507c after being awarded a $190m rail contract with QLD Rail.
  • ASX Ltd (ASX) down another 1.5% to 3806c today. Plenty of press surrounding SGX’s takeover with PM Julia Gillard getting involved saying national interest will decide whether it goes ahead or not.
  • TAP Oil (TAP) appoints Troy Hayden as its new CEO and MD. TAP unchanged at 82c.
  • Companies hitting fresh yearly highs include: FKP Property Group (FKP), Slater & Gordon (SGH) and Tatt’s Group (TTS).

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