Shares in Surfers Paradise-based property developer Raptis Group Ltd have been suspended after one of the group's financiers appointed a receiver to "entities associated" with one of its major developments on the Gold Coast, the $700 million Southport Central project.
World oil prices jumped and the weakening Australian dollar steadied after OPEC revealed a surprise cut in its production of 520,000 barrels of oil a day.
A big test today for the Australian Bureau of Statistics and its new look labour force survey: it will have to pick up a rise in jobs loss and a rise in the unemployment rate for the statistics to remain credible.
The market is down 94– was down 130 at worst – not quite as severe as the 164 point fall predicted by the SFE Futures this morning. Resources doing most of the damage. BHP and RIO down about 5% taking 40 points off the index. FMG down 7%. Oz Minerals down nearly 7%. The A$ has slipped under 80c and is the main driver for our market as international institutions get stuck in the door trying to get out of five years of A$ and Resource sector strength. Even BHP and RIO are reasonably illiquid in a global sense, you can imagine what happens when these "Man in the Moon" investors try to get out of the 2nd tier stocks like Fortescue and Oz Minerals. Its carnage.
The struggling US investment bank, Lehman Bros has brought forward its third quarter financial statement by a week, and has promised also to detail new capital initiatives after its shares sank 45% on Wall Street overnight.
According to a filing with the ASX yesterday, BG Group of Britain holds a huge 0.15%, or 1.337 million shares, in its takeover target, Origin Energy, or rather its former takeover target.
Centro Properties and its retail trust associate, and ABC Learning Centres are two of the high profile basket cases to have imploded under the weight of the credit crunch, the growing distaste for high debt and risk, and in the case of ABC, funny accounting.
