Sharemarket and Market Trading News

Read the latest Australian sharemarket trading and Australian Business news.

The Australian dollar opened more than half a US cent weaker on Wednesday, pushed down by renewed demand for the US currency and a further slip in commodity prices.

At 7am (AEDT), the local currency was trading at US73.35¢, a sharp fall from Tuesday's close of US73.93¢.

During overnight trade, it hit a high of US74.09¢ and a low of US73.17¢.

The Australian dollar opened significantly weaker on Tuesday as falling commodity prices and a narrowing interest rate spread with the US weighed on the local unit. At 7am (AEDT), the local currency was trading at US74.04¢, almost three quarters of a US cent below Monday's close of US74.72¢. During overnight trade, it hit a high of US74.71¢ and a low of US74¢.

Although the consensus view is to the contrary, the analysts at JP Morgan are voicing the opinion that the Australian dollar will fall to 0.71 against the USD by June 2006 and then fall further to 0.69 by the end of 2006.

This view is based on the assumption that the change of language used by the US Fed shows it is likely to continue tightening interest rates, and as a result Australia’s interest rate advantage is disappearing, the analysts say.

[GFF] Goodman Fielder Listed on the ASX today hitting the boards at $2.06 - up by 6 cents over issue price: Goodman Fielder listed on the Australian Stock Exchange at noon on Monday, with the food group's shares at a 6¢ premium to their issue price. The stock hit the boards at $2.06, well up on the $2 issue price. Goodman Fielder's initial public offer (IPO) raised approximately $2.12 billion from the issue of 1.06 million shares at $2 each.

Gold Profit Taking after Recent All Time Gold Highs: Profit-taking has weighed on gold since last Monday when gold futures climbed as high as $US544.50 an ounce, the latest in a series of quarter-century highs for the precious metal.

With Friday's close of $US505.90, however, futures had shed 4.8 per cent, or $US24.30, over the week.

"If you look at charts, there seems to have been a pretty strong correlation of late between the gold and the Australian dollar," he said. And despite a healthier-than-expected US current account deficit on Friday, the US currency weakened.

Australian Dollar Opened Weaker Today as investors continued to sell the local currency to support recent yen purchases: At 7am (AEDT), the local unit was trading at US74.30¢, below Friday's close of US74.60¢. In the weekend's trade, it hit a high of US74.79¢ and a low of US74.20¢.

Treasurer Peter Costello has accepted reality and cut $6.5 billion from the Federal Government's 51 per cent stake in Telstra. Releasing the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, Mr Costello said this year's slump in Telstra's share price made it necessary to include a more realistic estimate of the proceeds of the sale of the government's 6 billion shares.

With the shares valued at $5.25 in the May budget, Mr Costello said Treasury had based its new price estimate on the 90-day average price of Telstra up to December 8, which worked out at $4.13 a share.

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