Share market report reveals a surge of good news from Australia’s resources sector

1461
Image credit: freedigitalphotos By: Idea go

Australia’s resources sector gets a much needed boost thanks to a number of encouraging production reports from leading companies. 

Image credit: freedigitalphotos By: Idea go
Image credit: freedigitalphotos By: Idea go

A news article on ABC reveals some of the details that resulted in an increase of the share market, including 64 points added to the 5,319 All Ordinaries Index.

BHP Billiton reported 2.5% higher shares, while main competitor Rio Tinto reported a 2.1% increase in share value, along with a rise in full-year iron ore production.

Newcrest, a leader in gold mining, reported an astonishing 7% increase but was surpassed by Iluka Resources with a 7.6% increase.

Woodside, a leading oil and gas production company, also revealed good news in terms of improved production and an increase of 2.7% in share value. Whitehaven Coal posted a 2.75% increase, while Origin Energy’s shares are almost 2.5% higher.

Adertisement

West Texas crude oil is worth $US93.65 a barrel while the price of a Tapis barrel amounted to $US114.11. Spot gold value amounted to $US1,241 an ounce.

In terms of employment, most analysts predicted 10,000 new jobs in December, but the figures issued by the Australian Bureau of Statistics tell a different story with 22,600 job cuts for the month, while the national unemployment rate remained steady at 5.8%.

Commonwealth Bank shares fell 0.5%; both Westpac and the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited added just 0.4 of a per cent to their value, while the National Australia Bank reports a gain of 0.75 of a per cent.

Share value of Telstra Corporation Limited, one of Australia’s leading telecommunications and media companies, reached $5.28.

Revealed employment figures were much lower than expected which was quite disappointing and resulted in a three-and-a-half-year low local currency of 88.11US cents (64.72 euro cents, 53.90 British pence, 92.29 Japanese yen and $NZ1.05).