Shares Spurt To Three-month High
The Age
Wednesday August 31, 1994
Gathering support from key inflationary data, the sharemarket pushed 5.6 points higher yesterday to close at its highest point in three months.
The All Ordinaries index spurted ahead in morning trade, levelling off in the afternoon to consolidate at 2122.1 points.
Credit markets were uninspired by gross domestic product figures released yesterday, with the key Commonwealth 10-year bond yield closing two basis points firmer at 9.34 per cent.
The Australian dollar lacked direction, closing at 74.22 US cents, from 74.16 US cents previously. The US dollar closed at 99.53 yen on domestic markets.
Data issued by the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed Australia's gross domestic product rose by a seasonally adjusted 0.9 per cent during the June quarter, taking the total year's rise to 4.3 per cent.
Industry analysts said yesterday that because the figure was only marginally above expectations, it failed to give the equities market any significant boost.
``The market has had a few days of fairly strong increases so it would have taken something out of the ordinary for the market to run on the GDP figures," said Mr Glenn Morgan, a dealer at Daiwa Securities.
``(But) I think it's still possible that the market's got quite a bit in it."
Foster's Brewing topped turnover with 8.88 million shares traded, as the brewer gained three cents to $1.16 on speculation that it was close to finalising a $180million brewing deal in northern China, making it China's biggest brewer.
Gold stocks continue to lead yesterday's climb. Defying an overnight drop in the gold price, the Gold index continued to surge forward, gaining a further 1.4 per cent to close at 2310.2 points. The gold price steadied yesterday at $US385.75 an ounce.
Among gold stocks, Gold Mines of Kalgoorlie closed eight cents higher at $1.33, Placer Pacific gained eight cents to $3.80 and Plutonic Resources crawled up five cents to $6.10.
Elsewhere, Orbital Engine Company's share price rocketed up 19 cents to $1.94 after Tuesday's announcement that it had developed technology able to reduce emissions from two-stroke motorcycles by 95 per cent.
MIM and TNT's profit reports were poorly received by traders yesterday. MIM's share price fell nine cents to $3.03 after it announced a net loss of $195.1 million for the year, and TNT's share price slid four cents to $2.65, despite the company reporting an annual profit of $105.1 million - its first annual profit for four years.
© 1994 The Age
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