CANBERRA: The Australian stock market opened higher on Wednesday following the positive cues from Wall Street and upbeat corporate earnings results from local companies. However, the market has now pared early gains amid worries about the political situation in France and uncertainty over U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies. In late-morning trades, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is adding 7.90 points or 0.14 percent to 5,629.80, off a high of 5,641.10 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is rising 10.10 points or 0.18 percent to 5,682.70. The big four banks are modestly higher. ANZ Banking, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and Westpac are higher in a range of 0.2 percent to 0.7 percent.
In the mining space, BHP Billiton is losing almost 1 percent and Fortescue Metals is down 0.5 percent, while Rio Tinto is advancing almost 1 percent ahead of the release of its full-year earnings results after the market closes. Gold miner Newcrest Mining is lower by 0.5 percent and Evolution Mining is declining 2 percent even as gold prices touched new three-month highs overnight. Oil stocks are also weak as crude oil prices extended losses overnight. Oil Search is losing almost 1 percent, Santos is declining more than 1 percent and Woodside Petroleum is down 0.3 percent. Dreamworld operator Ardent Leisure reported a 50 percent decline in theme parks revenue in January, but noted that the month represented a steady increase in visitation compared to December. The company’s shares are rising more than 2 percent.
Premier Investments, the owner of Smiggle and Peter Alexander retailers, said it expects first-half underlying earnings to increase 10.6 percent. The company’s shares are gaining almost 12 percent. CIMIC Group’s shares are rising more than 7 percent after the construction and contract mining group said it expects full-year 2017 net profit to increase up to 21 percent and also reported a 12 percent increase in profit for the year ended December 31, 2016.
