The market is up 13. The SFE Futures were up 17 this morning.

The Dow Jones closed up 46. Dow was up 74 at best and down 83 at worst. US dollar hit two-year lows on the back of disappointing economic data overnight. IMF says the global economic recovery is likely to continue to slow in 2011 and cut their growth forecasts for the UK. Oil price fell 34c to $76.18 but Gold continued to hit record highs – up $9.70 to $1308.30. The Aussie dollar continued its rise == now at 96.73c compared to 96.05c.

Today’s main points…

  • Telstra held their Annual Institutional Investor Briefing today. The main points to come out of it is they believe they can comfortably fund a 28c a share dividend in 2010-11 because of strong cash flow and that they will spend $1bn on stealing market share from competitors. TLS up 2c to 272c — hit a high of 276c at one stage.
  • ASX Ltd (ASX) held their AGM today. CEO Robert Elstone will step down when his contract expires in July 2011. ASX was in the news yesterday after issuing itself a “speeding ticket” and announcing they have had discussions with smaller exchanges. ASX down 41c to 3311c.
  • Dart Energy (DTE) and Apollo Gas (AZO) have confirmed their merger. They will now have an enterprise value of around $145.5m and could be selling gas to the NSW power market by 2012. Both stocks doing well today — DTE up 5c to 1115c and AZO up 6.9% to 84.5c.
  • Nufarm (NUF) announced yesterday afternoon a net loss of $23.99m for the year to July 31. The loss reflected “difficult trading conditions”. They will not pay a dividend and instead will try to rectify their debt issues. NUF down another 5% to 374c.
  • Sigma Pharmaceuticals (SIP) reported a net loss of $218.5m for the six months to July 31, down from a $32.2m profit a year earlier. They won’t pay an interim dividend. SIP unchanged at 48c.
  • NGM Resources (NGM) say they will dispute Paladin Energy’s (PDN) decision to withdraw from their $27m takeover for them after a terrorist attack earlier this month. NGM down 36% to 9.5c.
  • Patersons has cut their recommendation on Monadelphous Group (MND) to Hold from Buy due to its recent share price strength. MND up 10.7% in the past month but is down 17c to 1626c.
  • Notable stocks going ex-dividend today: Austbrokers (15c), Goodman Fielder (5.5c) and MAp Group (12.5c).
  • Stocks hitting fresh yearly highs today: Bradken (BKN), Dart Energy (DTE) and Super Cheap Auto (SUL).

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