Reuters: Hot Stocks: Australia shares edge up, investors look to local earnings

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Australia shares edge up, investors look to local earnings Feb 19th 2013, 01:03 Tweet Share this Email Print Mon Feb 18, 2013 8:03pm EST (Updates to open) SYDNEY, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Australian shares edged up 0.1 percent on Tuesday as investors focused on local corporate earnings for direction after a three-month rally that has taken the market to 4-1/2 year highs. "We didn't have a lead from Wall St overnight, we also had weakness coming through from European markets overnight, so we were never expecting a strong day," said Juliette Saly, stock market analyst at Commonwealth Securities. Wall Street was closed overnight for President's Day. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index added 4.9 points to to 5,068.3 by 0054 GMT. The index rose 0.6 percent on Monday to its highest close since September 2008. "I think it's a pretty good outcome that we haven't seen profit-takers move in as we're just holding at those 4-1/2 year highs at the moment," Saly said. Global iron ore miners were mixed. Rio Tinto Ltd dropped 0.8 percent but rival BHP Billiton Ltd gained 0.6 percent. Financials were also mixed with Westpac Banking Corp and National Australia Bank showing losses of 0.7 percent and 0.5 percent respectively. Top local lender Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Australia New Zealand Banking Group were both trading flat. Defensives were strong: Telecommunications company Telstra Ltd posted gains of 0.6 percent while blood products maker CSL Ltd climbed 1.6 percent. Supermarket major Woolworths Ltd jumped 1.1 percent. Metal prices dipped on Monday as signs of weak global growth dampened the demand outlook for industrial metals, with the focus on buying interest from top consumer China where investors are returning from a week-long holiday. New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index rose 0.4 percent to 4,230.9. STOCKS ON THE MOVE * Asciano soared 3.3 percent to A$5.43. The ports and rail operator reported a first-half profit after tax of $199.9 million and expected full-year capital expenditure would be in the $700-$800 million range projected in its FY 2012 final results. (0053 GMT) * APN News & Media dropped 6.7 percent to A$0.28. The stock has crashed from a high of A$6.16 in 2007. The chief executive, chairman and independent directors of the company resigned on Monday after major shareholder Independent News & Media said it had lost confidence in management and scuppered a planned capital raising. (0053 GMT) * Coca Cola Amatil jumped 2.1 percent to A$13.91. The soft drink developer posted full year total revune of A$5.18 billion, up 6.3 percent. (0053 GMT) (Reporting By Maggie Lu Yueyang and Thuy Ong; Editing by Eric Meijer) 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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