Bendigo's Adelaide Bank Buy Pays Off
Shares in the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank ended with a solid 6% gain yesterday after it confirmed the merger was working.
Shares in the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank ended with a solid 6% gain yesterday after it confirmed the merger was working.
The market is up 24, below futures expectations - SFE Futures were up 72 this morning. Financials strong – up 1.9% after strong rise in US financials on Friday. Resources down 2.1% following falls in BHP and RIO in the US. The property sector is up 1.7%. Results season going OK– United Group up 4.5% on results. Crane Group up 3.2% on results, Bendigo & Adelaide Bank up 3.16% on results. Profits warning –Babcock & Brown have issued a profits warning this morning and fallen 9.41%.
It's now the biggest imponderable for Australian business. Just as we seem to have pushed high oil prices and inflation to the back of the agenda with last week's Reserve Bank hint of a rate cut, possibly next month, the plunging value of the Australian dollar will force us to keep oil and cost pressures in the forefront of our mind.
Oil, corn, gold, copper and silver tumbled, sending commodity markets to a four-month low, as the US dollar jumped in theories that slower economic growth would erode demand for raw materials.
The futures market says our shares will be up 1.4% or more than 70 points this morning, but I'd also keep a close eye on commodity stocks like Rio Tinto, Oz Minerals, BHP Billiton, Woodside, Santos and Newcrest because another poor night for commodities Friday night is going to be a telling factor.
Another weekend and another announcement from Rio Tinto as it continues to blitz the markets with announcements about what it is and isn't doing.
It won't be as dramatic a week this week as last week was with four leading central banks meeting; our bank's signalling a rate cut as soon as next month, and then the Europeans ruling out a rate rise sparking a major rise in the value of the US dollar, which was already on the turn.