Buoyed by upbeat offshore leads the Australian share market is eyeing a positive start to the new trading week. US markets rose at the end of last week on the back of better than expected results following two days of steep falls. European markets also ended the week on a bright note despite forecasts the euro zone economy will continue to contract this year and Italy’s looming election result, which could sway sentiment this week. With no major local economic news scheduled for release today attention will again remain on earnings results. 

 

Figures

Wall Street closed higher on Friday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 120 points to close at 14,001, the S&P 500 gained 13 points to close at 1,516 and the NASDAQ gained 30 points to close at 3,162.

 

European markets rose at the end of last week: London’s FTSE added 44 points, Paris added 82 points and Frankfurt added 78 points.

 

Asian markets finished mixed at the end of last week: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 124 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei added 77 and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 12 points.

 

The Australian share market gained 0.8 per cent on Friday, pushing through 5,000 but falling short of a weekly gain: The S&P/ASX 200 advanced 38 points on Friday, but lost 16 points over the week to close at 5,018. On the futures market the SPI is 21 points higher. 

 

Currencies

The Australian Dollar at 8:40AM was buying $US1.03 cents, 68.4 Pence Sterling, 97.45 Yen and 78.03 Euro cents.

 

Company news

Telecommunications network operator Chorus Limited (ASX:CNU) has reported a first half net profit of about $AUD68 million.

 

Federation Centres Limited (ASX:FDC), the re-branded Centro, has rebounded to a first half net profit of $116 million following its restructure in 2011.