
Stock markets in Asia are trading much lower with most of the investors participating in heavy selling of many front line stocks, as per the tracking of Wall Street in which stocks were seen tumbling last Friday amid disappointing reports of earnings. In the markets of Australia, energy, healthcare and mining are some of the biggest losers. Property, industrial and financial trusts stocks were also seen trading weak.
The S&P/ASX 200 index, which was declining to reach 4,522.7 during early trades, is at the moment down by 30.7 points or 0.7% at 4,540.4. The All Ordinaries index is also down 29.8 points or 0.6% at 4,563.7, which is around 20 points lower than the lowest of the day 4,545.9. Among different bank stocks, National Australia Bank was recorded down around 1% and WBK is also trading 1.2% low, while Commonwealth Bank of Australia and NZ plunged marginally. Bendigo & Adelaide Bank contracted 0.6% and on the other hand Bank of Queensland was seen trading flat.
Top miners Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton plunged 2.2% and 1% respectively. Moving over to the energy sector, Santo, Wood side Petroleum Oil Search and Caltex Australia also traded lesser by 0.6% to 1.2%. Origin Energy, on the other hand, is improving the ongoing trend and is marginally up.
Shares of Treasury Wine Estates are also down by over 6% after the company lowered its forecast after 2 consecutive quarters of slow performance. The company states that its earnings during its first half of the current financial year might be 20% lesser, against its earnings during the same period in last year. Fortescue Metals, Aurora Oil & Gas, James Hardie Industries, Primary Healthcare, White haven Coal, Iluka Resources, Oz Minerals and SP Ausnet are all down by 2% to 2.6%.
Blue scope Steel, PanAust, Challenger and Worley Parsons, QBE Insurance Group, ResMed (RMD) and News Corporation (NWS) were also seen recording very low. Fairfax Media increased 3.5% and Perseus Mining is also trading around 2% higher. Grain corp on the other hand is scoring heavy profit at 40%.
Grain corp has already announced about it reviewing a big takeover offer of A$2.7 billion from Archer Daniel Midlands, one of the leading American agribusinesses. The company confirmed that it had got an indication of a non-binding proposal of acquisition from ADM. This happened after the American company increased the stakes in the business in Australia to 14.9%.