Reuters: Hot Stocks: Australia shares sag as miners backtrack

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Australia shares sag as miners backtrack Nov 28th 2012, 01:19 MELBOURNE | Tue Nov 27, 2012 8:19pm EST MELBOURNE Nov 28 (Reuters) - Australian shares fell 0.4 percent on Wednesday as top miners declined, pulling back from two-week highs on weaker gold and oil and concerns over how the U.S. budget impasse would be resolved. BHP Billiton fell 1 percent while Rio Tinto shed 2.2 percent after U.S. stocks declined and the OECD said Australia's economy is expected to grow at a weaker pace over the next two years.. "We are falling away in areas which had picked up in recent days, unable to follow through here today," said Jamie Spiteri, senior dealer at Shaw Stockbroking. "Markets don't really provide any sort of compelling investment value here at present because the grey cloud of uncertainty still overhangs the economic climate, in particular across Europe and the U.S., but also filtering into this part of the world as well," he said. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was down 19 points at 4,438.2 by 0105 GMT. It rose 0.7 percent to a two-week closing high of 4,456.8 on Tuesday. New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index slipped 4 points to 4,005.7. U.S. stocks slid after Senate majority leader Harry Reid expressed disappointment that there had been little progress in dealing with the "fiscal cliff." STOCKS ON THE MOVE: * Mining services firm NRW Holdings slumped 14 percent to A$1.55 after it annual net profit margins may fall to 5 to 6 percent, down from 7.1 percent in fiscal 2012, due to weaker prices as demand softens. "As we experience subdued global demand and commodity price weakness, clients are focused on cost reductions and these pressures are being passed on to contractors with a resulting effect of reduced margins," Chief Executive Julian Pemberton said in a trading update. Rival Boart Longyear fell 2.3 percent to A$1.30. 0102 GMT * JB Hi-Fi fell 6.5 percent to a two-week low of A$10.13 after it said it would expand into whitegoods, cooking and small appliances as earnings from its DVDs, CDs and games decline due to online competition. "This is a space which has been increasingly more competitive and has seen profit margins contract quite considerably, to the detriment of groups like Harvey Norman," said Spiteri. Harvey Norman was down 1.3 percent at A$1.81. 0100 GMT (Reporting by Miranda Maxwell; Editing by Eric Meijer) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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