CANBERRA: The Australian stock market is declining for a fifth straight day on Wednesday following the weak cues overnight from Wall Street and lower commodity prices. Investors turned cautious as they digested key economic data and awaited U.S. President Donald Trump’s first address to Congress. In late-morning trades, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 15.00 points or 0.26 percent to 5,697.20, off a low of 5,675.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 16.20 points or 0.28 percent to 5,744.80.
In the mining space, BHP Billiton is declining almost 1 percent, Rio Tinto is declining 0.5 percent and Fortescue Metals is down 0.4 percent after iron ore prices fell one percent overnight. Among oil stocks, Oil Search and Woodside Petroleum are losing more than 1 percent each, while Santos is down more than 2 percent. Bucking the trend, the big four banks are modestly higher. ANZ Banking, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and National Australia Bank are higher in a range of 0.1 percent to 0.5 percent. Transurban Group has won a $460 million contract for a road project in the U.S. The toll road operator’s shares are advancing almost 1 percent. Macmahon Holdings, which rejected a takeover bid from construction giant CIMIC on Monday, has signed a non-binding heads of agreement with Indonesian miner PT Amman Mineral Nusa Tengarra. Under the deal, the mining services provider will acquire some assets from AMNT, while AMNT will become a stakeholder in Macmahon. Shares of Macmahon are rising more than 13 percent. In economic news, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said that Australia’s gross domestic product climbed a seasonally adjusted 1.1 percent on quarter in the fourth quarter of 2016. That exceeded forecasts for an increase of 0.8 percent following the 0.5 percent contraction in the third quarter. The latest survey from the Australian Industry Group showed that the manufacturing sector in Australia continued to expand in February, and at a sharply faster pace. That marks a large jump from 51.2 in January, and it moves further above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. It also marks the highest index reading since May 2002.
Australia will also see February results for the Reserve Bank of Australia’s commodity index. In the currency market, the Australian dollar is lower against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday. In early trades, the local unit was trading at US$0.7667, down from US$0.7686 on Tuesday. On Wall Street, stocks closed lower on Tuesday, reflecting trepidation ahead of President Donald Trump’s highly anticipated speech to a joint session of Congress. Traders were also reacting to a slew of U.S. economic data, including a report from the Commerce Department showing that the pace of economic growth in the fourth quarter was unrevised. The Dow edged down 25.20 points or 0.1 percent to 20,812.24, the Nasdaq slid 36.46 points or 0.6 percent to 5,825.44 and the S&P 500 fell 6.11 points or 0.3 percent to 2,363.64. The major European markets all moved modestly higher on Tuesday. While the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.3 percent, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index and the German DAX Index both edged up by 0.1 percent. Crude oil futures were flat Tuesday, staying in the middle of a stubborn trading range amid further signs that OPEC production and exports are on the rise. WTI oil for April slipped $0.04 to settle at $54.01 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
