Shares Go Out On Whimper

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday October 6, 1995

By JUSTINE TRUEMAN

The Australian sharemarket continued to drift after a nervous week, finishing lower on depressed commodity prices.

Strong bond and currency markets, and a number of companies going ex-dividend during the week, didn't help either, with any negative news from the US sending the local Bourse sliding.

The All Ordinaries rose a little in early trading on news of a 22-point jump on Wall Street overnight but it spent the rest of the day in negative territory, finishing 4.5 points lower at 2098.2. The futures market was quiet, finishing on 2112 with a more reasonable premium than previously of 13.8 points.

Volume was quite low on the day with the 187.2 million shares traded, worth $364.9 million.

While industrials remained fairly flat, resources performed badly with the worst fall by CRA, down 18c to $20.12, and hitting a three-month low.

Western Mining was 9c lower at $8.38 and North weakened 2c to $3.56, while BHP slipped 2c to $18.00.

Metals had closed steady in London but fell dramatically on US markets overnight with nickel down 2 per cent and copper down 3 per cent.

Email was hammered after a shock profit warning sent the stock sprawling. It fell 11c to $3.35.

Mr Greg Matthews, of Mercantile Mutual, said a lot of the weakness could be attributed to foreign selling, much of it coming from the US and Asia.

Pasminco again topped turnover on 9.7 million shares with most of the stock crossed. It finished down 2c at $1.48.

Brokers said that, after its series of earnings downgrades, some investors might be reducing their resources exposure while others might consider it looked good at these prices.

Energy Equity Corp, a utility gas provider, shot up 10.2 per cent yesterday on high volume to 54c, up 5c.

The company is tendering for a large Indonesian project and there is a rumour it may get the go ahead next week.

News Corp fell about 15 per cent from its recent highs, but was steady yesterday at $7.06. Preferred shares fell 5c to $6.30.

Coles Myer's stock fell 3c to $4.37.

Lihir Gold shares will start trading on Monday with many investors looking for a rerating of the whole gold sector as a result.