Government

AGL Energy (AGK), the leading energy company in Australia which focuses on a wide range of energy related businesses in the country including the sales of electricity and gas, energy processing infrastructure, power generation, natural gas production facilities development, extraction, exploration and coal seam methane gas (CSM) production is planning to “fast-track” the Macarthur wind farm that worth as much as $800 million.

Tom Albanese, the chief executive of Rio Tinto (RIO) has stated that the Australian Government will turn into a risky “silent partner” of the Australia based miners through its proposed resource super-profits tax (RSPT) which has created a huge debate throughout the mining industry and believed to have negative impact over the mining sector of the country. Rio Tinto is currently doing as much as it can to prevent the RSPT which it believes will enhance the sovereign risk of Australia.

Queensland Coal has received a takeover bid that worth $4.85 billion from a consortium of coal miners which includes BHP Billiton (BHP) and Xstrata for its track network. The proposal has been made to trump a plan by the government of Queensland to float the coal and bulk freight assets of Queensland Rail by the end of 2010 under the banner of a new company named as QR National.

The chief executive of Rio Tinto (RIO) Tom Albanese said that it is important for the UK based investors to raise their voice against the proposed controversial resource super profit tax (RSPT) on the mining sector of Australia which has created a major debate recently. The latest data shows that the tax is going to have negative impacts not only on FTSE but on the retail sector as well.

Peabody Energy, the US based coal company has lowered its bid by as much as $300 million for Australia based Macarthur Coal (MCC), which is being considered as a sign that the Australian miners are losing their value in the market due to the super-profits tax proposed by the government. The reviewed Peabody deal is expected to be “knocked back” by the major Macarthur shareholders.

The proposed super-profit tax over the miners have seen the value of mining companies taking major hit on Tuesday as the sector lost another $7 billion worth of value.

One of the largest financial institutions of Australia, Macquarie Group (MQG) is planning to close down its management trust that worth $10 billion and direct the investors into a deposit account which is market focused. Macquarie held the Government deposit guarantee as the reason due to which funds drained out from the trust.

Treasurer Wayne Swan delivered one of the biggest budgets ever for the nation today for the Australian Budget 2008. Economists and business groups hailed the budget and expressed their confidence in the budget. The Australian financial market also expressed their confidence and expected that the proposed budget shall help to reduce interest rates and benefit the financial markets as well. It is wise to understand that the budget surplus is heavily contributed by the boom in resource prices which is being fuelled by demand in China.

Investors and share traders at the Australian stock exchange are cautious before the introduction of new budget to be introduced on Tuesday. Traders also fear yet another surge in crude oil prices and problems in the financial markets. Thus, they would be more focussed towards the domestic events in coming few days.