3:00AM New York, 7:00PM Sydney- Australian stocks rose after Commonwealth Bank said it has no need of additional capital.
Market Sentiments
ASX 200 index gained 1% or 54.8 to close at 5,723.20.
Market Driver
Commonwealth Bank of Australia shares rose 4.3% after the bank said that it was not seeking any additional capital. CBA asserted that its financial position was strong after the completion of its wholesale funding program for fiscal 2008 in April.
Separately, Commonwealth created a portfolio of $15.6 billion of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) through its Medallion Trust. These RMBS would be held by the Group and if required, the Class A notes can be used for repurchase agreements with the Reserve Bank of Australia to generate up to an additional $12.25 billion of liquidity for the Group.
The assets of the trust comprise fixed and variable interest rate mortgage loans originated from the Group''s home loan portfolio and from the portfolio of Homepath Pty Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary. The deal consists of three tranches class A of $14.97 billion, class B of $103 million and class C of $577.6 million. The Class A notes are expected to be rated AAA.
National Australia Bank Ltd, which reports its interim results on Friday, gained 1.6% and Westpac was up 3.6%. ANZ''s share shed 0.6%.
Gainers and losers
Of the ASX 200 index stocks, Suncorp-Metway led the gainers with a rise of 10.4% followed by increases in Macmahon Holdings of 6%, in West Australia Newspaper of 4.9%, in AGL Energy Ltd of 4.7% and in Sigma Pharmaceuticals of 4.6%.
Of the ASX 200 index stocks, Perilya Ltd led the decliners with a fall of 6.9% followed by losses in Caltex Australia Ltd of 6%, in Murchison Metals of 5.2%, in Pan Australia Res Ltd of 4.5% and in Challenger Finance of 4.4%.
Centro gets more debt relief
Australia''s largest manager of retail property investment syndicates Centro Properties Group today announced that it had been granted temporary relief by its Australian financiers and US private placement note holders. The debt and interest payment are granted extension till December 15, 2008 after the real estate operator offered additional guarantees.
In a statement the group said the facilities comprise a $2.3 billion in aggregate owed to the Australian lending group and US$450 million owed to US private placement note holders.
Centro also owes about $1.2 billion on other funds and syndicates, bringing the total under negotiation to $6.6 billion, it said in a statement May. 1.
David Jones records 3.8% sales growth
Australia''s second- largest department store chain, David Jones Limited today reported a 3.8% increase in total sales growth for the third quarter of the 2008 financial year from 27 January 2008 to 26 April 2008.
Third-quarter sales rose 8.4% in the year earlier. The retailer said its sales revenue amounted to $453.3 million and its same store sales growth rose 2.3%.
David Jones CEO Mark McInnes said, ""Our third quarter sales performance reflects the slowdown in consumer spending that we were anticipating and had started to plan for more than 18 months ago. Our business is in good shape and we are well prepared for the expected continuing environment of softer consumer demand.
All states showed a softening in sales growth with our best performing States being Queensland and Victoria, which are the states where we are taking market share.” |
