Good day for the market – up 41. The SFE Futures were up 26 this morning.

Wall St. up 44 overnight. The Dow was up 68 at best and down 46 at worst. The session starting in the red but slowly moved into positive territory once the market fully digested Obama’s healthcare reform. Metals were mixed overnight. Oil price bounced 87c to $81.77 but the Gold price fell $6.30 to $1101.30. The Aussie dollar improved to 91.81c from 91.46c.

Quiet day on the news front today…

  • New Hope Corp (NHC) has announced a 1H profit that came in slightly ahead of expectations. They also said they would sell their 16.8% into the Shell-PetroChina offer indicating a rival bid is unlikely to emerge at this stage. The stock fell over 5% yesterday as a result of the market expecting a higher improved offer from the bidders. NHC up 9c to 497c.
  • Murray Goulburn Cooperative now owns 9.99% of Warrnambool Cheese & Butter (WCB), up from 8.37%. WCB has rejected Murray’s takeover offer saying it undervalues the company. Murray can’t buy any more shares in WCB because of the 10% maximum shareholder cap. WCB unchanged at 439c.
  • Brambles (BXB) has cancelled their secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange. BXB down 6c to 759c.
  • Sigma Pharmaceuticals postpone the release of their FY numbers. Last traded at 90c.Rio’s Stern Hu has admitted receiving bribes of up to $960,000 during the opening day of his trial. RIO having a good day – up 1.2% to 7590c.
  • Oil Search (OSH) warns there might be too many LNG projects planned for the Asia Pacific region over the next 10 years. OSH up 6c to 591c.
  • Asciano (AIO) has secured a 7 year $150m rail haulage contract with Sadleirs Transport, a freight company. AIO up 3c to 188c.
  • Stocks hitting fresh 52 week highs include: Cochlear (COH), Audrill (ASL), iiNet (IIN) and Riversdale Mining (RIV).

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