The market is down 41. The SFE Futures were down 51 this morning.

Wall Street closed down 114 overnight. The Dow was up 23 at best and down 125 at worst. The Dow Jones fell 125 points in the last two hours of trade on a falling euro, poor earnings comments, and an investigation into the banks. Metals were mostly up on the LME, the oil price put on $2.56 to $78.49 and the Gold price broke its recent impressive run falling $13.90 to $1229. The Aussie dollar increased slightly to 8954c from 8943c.

In other news today…

  • Healthscope (HSP) up 17.3% to 528c after receiving a 550c a share ($1.74bn) takeover offer from a private equity consortium. The board has advised shareholders to take “NO ACTION“. The rest of the healthcare sector has received a bit of a boost as a result.
  • Macarthur Coal (MCC) has terminated their takeover offer for Gloucester Coal (GCL).  The original bid involved a complex deal with Noble Group. MCC up 1.2% to 1347c. GCL up 2.63%.
  • Coca-Cola Amatil (CCL) held their AGM today. They told shareholders they expect 1H earnings growth to be in the high single digits area and reiterated 1H guidance for EBIT and net profit. CCL up 20c to 1114c.
  • Gindalbie Metals (GBG) down 8.6% to 106c after successfully securing $111.8m via an institutional placement which received “strong support” at 93c share. They raised an additional $63.2m via a conditional share placement to AnSteel at the same price.
  • Boart Longyear is trading under the code BLYDA after undertaking a 1-for-10 share consolidation. Their shares now trade at 342c, down 4c from yesterday.
  • Eastern Star Gas (ESG) has signed an early stage agreement with ERM Power for the supply of gas to their 600 megawatt power station in NSW. ESG up 2.5c today to 82c.
  • Santos (STO) has picked Fluor Australia as the preferred contractor to perform engineering, procurement and construction of the upstream facilities part of their Gladstone LNG JV. STO up 2c to 1317c.
  • Clough Ltd (CLO) has launched their own coal seam gas division called Clough Seam Gas. They have recruited experienced management and will be dedicated to client operating in the domestics CSG space. CLO down 2c to 85c.
  • The back page of the AFR says Optus, the Australian arm of Singapore Telecommunications, is on the verge of floating their $10bn plus business on the ASX. They achieved EBITDA of $2.15bn in the year to March and revenue of $8.9bn. TLS down 2c to 298c.
  • Stock hitting fresh 52 week highs include: Lihir Gold (LGL), Adamus Resources (ADU), Healthscope (HSP), iiNet (IIN)

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