The market is up 83. The SFE Futures were up 41 this morning.

Wall Street closed up 164 overnight and the S&P 500 rebounded from a seven-week low, rising 1.7% on Bernanke comments (‘Reasonable to expect some pick up in 2011 growth’) and short covering. The 2nd Q GDP estimate was also revised down to 1.6% from 2.4%, but was higher than the 1.4% expected. Metals were mostly up on the LME, the oil price rose $1.98 to $75.34 and Gold rose to $1237.90. The Aussie dollar was $90.14, up from 88.57c.

Today’s main points…

  • Beach Energy’s (BPT) annual net profit fell 87% to $33.12m. The company attributes the drop to reduced sales and large impairment costs but says it is well placed for growth after a solid year. Beach will pay a final dividend of 1c per share, for a full year dividend of 1.75c. BPT up 3.31% to 62.5c. It was 95c in January.
  • Kingsgate Consolidated (KCN) reported net profit for the year of $73.07m, more than double the $32.5m in the previous year. Revenue was $176.1m, up 54% on $114.09m in the prior year. They forecast a slight fall in gold production in the current year. Kingsgagte declared a final dividend of 20c, up from 15c. KCN up 4.46%.
  • Talk of Santos (STO) launching a bid for Eastern Star Gas (ESG) despite STO CEO David Knox saying on the weekend that they are very happy with their 19.9% holding in ESG. STO up 1.12%.
  • Some analysts believe that takeover target, Aevum (AVE), have overstated their cash flow position by not including construction and development costs items of $10.8m. Stockland Group (SGP) launched a 150c a share bid for Aevum last month. AVE unchanged at 170c.
  • Seek (SEK) says it is looking for more acquisitions in the online advertising and education space both domestically and overseas. SEK just spent $45m on a 40% stake in Mexican online job ads company OCC Mundial. SEK up 4c to 724c.
  • BHP Billiton (BHP) has indicated which parts of the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan it would like to sell if its takeover is successful. It sees value in the potash assets but would likely divest the nitrogen and phosphate businesses. BHP up 1.21%.
  • The AFR’s Street Talk column says the time is right for QBE Insurance (QBE) to launch another takeover offer for Insurance Australia (IAG). Analysts have growth concerns over QBE and IAG’s share price is down 25% since QBE’s offer. IAG up 2.35%, QBE up 1.45%.
  • Main stocks ex dividend today include ASX, WOR, SUN.

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