Australian Markets

Australian Engineering and infrastructure management service company,Downer EDI (ASX:DOW) have seen their shares fall a record 20 percent after an announcement to the Australian stockmarket that the production of the 78 new Waratah trains was running late.

Mid-size Australian stockbroker and financial adviser, Bell Financial Group (ASX:BFG) have released unaudited full year results which reveals that the company will post a 21 percent fall in profit. Bell Financial said that their unaudited full year net profit after tax for the year to December 31 was around $21.5 million, compared to their 2009 net profit results of $27.3 million.

Oil and gas explorer, developer and producer, Beach Energy (ASX:BPT) has increased their bid for Impress Energy (ASX:ITC). In the takeover offer, Beach have increased their bid from 8.25 cents to 8.5 cents per share, valuing Impress Energy at $75.3 million while also declaring the on-market offer as unconditional.

US Venture Fund, Accel Partners have bought an investment into the OzForex business, an online foreign exchange service. OzForex is majority owned by Macquarie Private Wealth, which bought a majority share in 2007 and is a subsidiary of (ASX:MQG). The OzForex Group, which operates as OzForex, UKForex, Canadian Forex and NZForex. Accel would not reveal the size of its investment, but rumours place the transaction as between $70-110 million.

A Melbourne based metals explorer, Fortis Mining (ASX:FMJ) expects to see its IPO (Initial Public Offering) close early before its December 1 expiry date.. The company opened its float offerings two weeks prior to raise $4 million at 20 cents per share.

Within four days of the IPO launch, two thirds of the shares on offer were allocated with Macquarie Banka and RBS Morgan rumoured to buy most of the IPO with $1.5 million worth each for clients.

Australian telecommunications network, Telstra (ASX:TLS) has reiterated their full year guidance, expecting its first-half result to show a low double digit decline in earnings before interest, tax and depreciation (EBITDA).

The world's largest pallet supplier, Brambles (ASX:BXB) is on track to buy German listed container business, IFCO Systems NV for €923 million ($A1.28 billion). Shares for Brambles jumped 5 percent on the takeover announcement.

Diversified media company, Fairfax (ASX:FXJ) have seen improvements to their markets, reiterating earnings guidance for high single digit earnings growth in the six months to December 21, 2010 at its AGM on Thursday in Melbourne. Fairfax managing director Brian McCarthy said, "The vast majority of your company's Australian businesses are experiencing revenue growth, and recently we have seen some small improvement in our New Zealand publishing business.

There are fresh doubts over the SGX and Australian Securities Exchange (ASX:ASX) merger. Institutional investors have warned the government that the merger of stock exhcnages may compromise regulatory functions, such as compliance which includes checking listing rules and continuous full disclosure, functions which are operated by the ASX. Australian federal parliament has the final say, which must approve any single entity from owning any position more than 15 percent.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, ACCC, Australia’s competition watchdog has questioned the $8.2 billion takeover bid by Singapore Exchange of Australian Securities Exchange (ASX:ASX) could hinder the entry of competing trading platforms into Australia.