The market is unchanged today. The SFE Futures were up 18 this morning.

Wall St. closed up 47 overnight. The Dow finished higher for the seventh consecutive session. It up 81 at best and up 1 at worst. PPI fell lower than expected easing inflation concerns. Metals performed strongly in London, the Oil price put $1.07 to $83 and Gold increased $2.30 to $1124.80. The Aussie dollar rose slightly to 92.35c from 92.07c.

In the news today…

  • Sigma Pharmaceuticals (SIP) — Market Update — SIP have finally provided the market with some information after going into a trading halt in the beginning of the month. They don’t expect to pay a final dividend and are in the process of renegotiating the terms of their banking covenants. They are also forecasting a fall in cash flow and significant pressure on the balance sheet.
  • Corporate Express (CXP) received a $1bn takeover offer from their 58.6% shareholder Staples Inc yesterday. The offer equates to 560c a share and includes a 12.5c dividend, giving the offer a total value of 5.725c. The CXP board has unanimously recommended the offer in absence of a superior bid. CXP put on 111c yesterday to close at 571c, but is down 15c to 556c today.
  • Molopo Energy (MPO) announced they have successfully completed their institutional placement and institutional entitlement offer. $31.5m was raised under the institutional placement priced at 115c new shares and $4.5m under the institutional entitlement offer at 103c a share. MPO down 5.1% to 121c.
  • CBH Resources (CBH) recommends shareholders accept a revised JV deal and bid for part of the company from Japan’s Toho Zinc, instead of the $290m takeover offer from Belgium’s Nystar. CBH last traded at 18.5c.
  • BT Investment Management (BTT) has extended their agreement with Westpac’s wealth management arm BT Financial Group to manage $16.7bn in investments, but they lose their exclusive management rights over the funds, allowing BT Financial to appoint other investment managers if they like. BTT up 4c to 300c.
  • Oz Minerals (OZL) down 2% to 114.5c after announcing an initial gold resource at their Okvau project in Cambodia of 650,000 ounces.
  • SP AusNet (SPN) have successful completed a $300m 7.5 year bond issue. SPN up 0.5c to 90.5c.
  • Spotless Group (SPT) completes the acquisition of CE Property Services Group.  SPT up 1c to 292c.
  • Stocks hitting fresh 52 week highs include: Bradken (BKN), IOOF Holdings (IFL), Monadelphous  Group (MND) and The Reject Shop (TRS).

The Dow Futures were up 9 at midday.

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