Australian Stocks Go Flat, New Zealand Shares Up

Australian stocks went flat on Monday, having the increases in financials offset the losses of the basic material section which went slipping down due to the falling of iron ore and copper prices. The S&P/ASX 200 index went increasing by 0.1%, which is also equivalent to 3.4 points to 5,868.8 at 0145 GMT.

The increase can be attributed to three of the “Big Four” banks in the country which rose between 0.06% and 0.4%. However, it was noted that Westpac Banking Corp lost 0.03 percent. The local market is said to be on a positive yet fragile close.

The Commonwealth increased by 0.5% to $86.39 and Rio Tinto went down by 0.7% to $60.01. Yancoal, a coal mining company, went down by 11% to $0.35 given that a subsidiary of Bank of China failed to release a loan amounting to $US175 million at the appointed time. Fortescue Metals also lost 1.3% and BHP Billiton dropped 0.7%.

Healthscope, a private hospital operator, decreased by almost 4% to $2.18 triggered by the stepping down of Robert Cooke from office who has been the hospital’s CEO for six years. He has been replaced by Gordon Ballantyne from Telstra. Even the fashion retailer Oroton, was able to add 5% to $1.60 from its last week report having $1.48.

Chris Weston (an institutional dealer at IG Markets) even said that, generally, the financials are doing good to drive the market upward. However, at the moment they went flat, making people unaware of the next good move for the financial sector.

Moreover, activity movement of the whole Australian manufacturing sector keeps on increasing at a rapid state. The Ai Group released its latest manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) of 57.5 last March. In fact, anything above the scale of 50 suggests that activity movements are improving and levels below 50 mean a decline.

For New Zealand, the S&P/NZX 50 index went up by 0.2% or 16.39 points higher at 7,213.17 continuing its gains for the fifth consecutive session. The gains can be attributed to A2 Milk Company and Argosy Property, in which both rose to over 2%.

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