Reuters: Hot Stocks: Australia shares seen opening higher, BHP appoints new CEO

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Australia shares seen opening higher, BHP appoints new CEO Feb 19th 2013, 22:42 Tweet Share this Email Print Related Topics Basic Materials » Energy » Tue Feb 19, 2013 5:42pm EST SYDNEY, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Australian shares are set to start higher on Wednesday, buoyed by market momentum and gains on Wall Street, with top global miner BHP Billiton Ltd in focus after it reported a sharp fall in half-year profit and appointed a new CEO. * Local share price index futures rose 0.3 percent to 5,076, a 5.9-point discount to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index close. The benchmark struck a 4-1/2 year high on Tuesday, continuing the recent rally on better-than-expected corporate earnings. * BHP appointed the head of its non-ferrous division as its new chief executive on Wednesday after it reported a 43 percent drop in half-year profit, its worst half-year slide in more than a decade. * New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index slipped 0.7 percent to 4,212.4 in early trade. * U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday as a surge in merger activity suggested investors were still finding value in the market even as indexes closed in on all-time highs. * Copper hit a three-week low on Tuesday, depressed by unease over top consumer China's limp return to the market from a week-long holiday, although losses were limited by better-than-expected German investor sentiment data. * Fortescue Metals Group Ltd, Suncorp Group Ltd , and Woodside Petroleum Ltd will release earnings reports. * Aurizon Holdings Ltd, formerly known as QR National, reported a 27 percent rise in half year profit after tax. ----------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT @ 2212 GMT ------------ INSTRUMENT LAST PCT CHG NET CHG S&P 500 1530.94 0.73% 11.150 USD/JPY 93.55 -0.01% -0.010 10-YR US TSY YLD 2.0278 -- 0.023 SPOT GOLD 1604.2 0.00% -0.010 US CRUDE 96.66 0.83% 0.800 DOW JONES 14035.67 0.39% 53.91 ASIA ADRS 138.16 1.33% 1.81 ------------------------------------------------------------- * M&A deals lift Wall Street shares nearer a record high * Oil rises, following U.S. equities higher * Gold drops near 6-month low on economic optimism * Copper at 3-wk low as Chinese demand disappoints For a digest of the day's business stories in Australian newspapers, double click on (Reporting By Maggie Lu Yueyang; Editing by John Mair) Related Quotes and News Company Price Related News Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above.

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