Stocks to watch on the Australian stock exchange on Thursday:
AIO – ASCIANO LTD – up 7.5 cents at $1.695
Asciano has signed a new five year container contract with Danish shipping giant Maersk Line.
BHP – BHP BILLITON LTD – up 82 cents at $43.44
BHP Billiton’s record-laden full year production report has impressed analysts, but they don’t expect to upgrade profit forecasts for the mining giant on the back of the output result.
FNP – FREEDOM NUTRITIONAL PRODUCTS LTD – closed on Wednesday at 34 cents
Australia’s Freedom Foods Group says it wants to exercise an option to take a further 18.7 million fully-paid ordinary shares in Auckland-based dairy company A2 Corporation Ltd.
MAP – MAP GROUP – up five cents at $3.44
Sydney Airport has posted a four per cent rise in earnings in the first half of calendar 2011, as its parent company signs a deal under which it will swap its interests in Brussels and Copenhagen airports for a higher stake in Sydney and more than $700 million in cash.
NAB – NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LTD – up 62 cents at $24.29
National Australia Bank will keep its UK subsidiaries, but is staying silent on whether it will bid for some of the 632 branches Lloyds Banking Group is being forced to sell.
NWS – NEWS CORPORATION – up 74 cents at $15.24
NWSLV – NEWS CORPORATION NON-VOTING – up 67 cents at $14.75
News Corporation’s locally-listed shares have opened four per cent higher following chief executive Rupert Murdoch’s insistence he does not plan to resign because of the phone hacking scandal.
PAG – PRIMEAG AUSTRALIA – in trading halt, last traded at $1.28
Shares in rural property investor PrimeAg Australia have been placed in a trading halt while the company completes a capital raising.
QAN – QANTAS AIRWAYS LTD – closed on Wednesday at $1.875
Qantas Airways chief executive Alan Joyce says jobs will be lost if all pilots across the airline group receive the same rate of pay.
TOE – TORO ENERGY LTD – up 0.4 cent at 8.8 cents
The company vying to develop Western Australia’s first uranium mine, Toro Energy, will provide its environmental plan for public scrutiny next week.
TSE – TRANSFIELD SERVICES LTD – up five cents at $3.40
STO – SANTOS LTD – up 24 cents at $13.35
Oil and gas producer Santos has awarded contracts worth $102 million to a subsidiary of Transfield Services for well construction and servicing.
WES – WESFARMERS LTD – up 88 cents at $31.09
Wesfarmers has reported lower quarterly production at two of its three coal mines, but output at its Curragh operation in Queensland’s Bowen Basin recovered strongly from flooding early this year.
WOW – WOOLWORTHS LTD – up 20 cents at $27.45
Australia’s biggest supermarket, Woolworths, increased full year sales by 4.7 per cent, in line with expectations, despite trading conditions remaining “challenging”.
