Reuters: Hot Stocks: Australia shares seen dropping on Italian uncertainty

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Australia shares seen dropping on Italian uncertainty Feb 25th 2013, 22:19 Tweet Share this Email Print Mon Feb 25, 2013 5:19pm EST MELBOURNE, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Australian shares are set to open lower on Tuesday as investor sentiment is hit by worries of renewed euro zone instability as election projections show Italy could end up with a split parliament. * Stock index futures fell 1.1 percent to 4,988.0, a 67.8-point discount to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index . The benchmark rose 0.8 percent on Monday, keeping the market close to a 4-1/2 year high hit last week. * New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index fell 0.4 percent to 4,211.6 in early trade. * U.S. stocks fell on Monday, reversing course from earlier gains as elections in Italy stoked concerns a divided parliament could disrupt the country's fiscal reforms and the euro zone's stability. * Copper rebounded from a six-day losing streak, although gains were kept in check by slower growth of manufacturing activity in top consumer China, where post-holiday buying has yet to pick-up aggressively. * Top insurer QBE Insurance Group reported an 8 percent rise in net profit to $761 million and said it expected to achieve an underlying insurance profit margin of 11 percent in 2013, up from 8 percent in 2012. * Atlas Iron reported a first-half underlying profit of A$1 million and said talks on building or accessing a rail line for its planned iron ore expansion were progressing. * Private hospital operator Ramsay Health Care reported a 12 percent rise in core net profit to A$148.2 million and raised full-year guidance for core profit growth to 13-15 percent from its previous guidance of 10-12 percent. * Seven Group Holdings reported a 47 percent rise in first-half profit before one-offs to A$234 million, underpinned by its WesTrac mining equipment business. ----------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT @ 2148 GMT ------------ INSTRUMENT LAST PCT CHG NET CHG S&P 500 1487.85 -1.83% -27.750 USD/JPY 91.86 -1.65% -1.540 10-YR US TSY YLD 1.8654 -- -0.096 SPOT GOLD 1593.54 0.84% 13.240 US CRUDE 92.12 -1.08% -1.010 DOW JONES 13784.17 -1.55% -216.40 ASIA ADRS 134.26 -1.63% -2.23 ------------------------------------------------------------- * Wall St trips and falls on cloudy Italian election * Brent up as Chinese imports up, Italy election weighs * Gold rises on rebound hopes, uncertain Italy election * Copper snaps losses, China caps gains For a digest of the day's business stories in Australian newspapers, double click on (Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by John Mair) 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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