Stocks to watch on the Australian stock exchange on Friday:
ANZ – ANZ BANKING GROUP LTD – down 11 cents at $21.13
CBA – COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – down 49 cents at $49.68
NAB – NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LTD – up 21 cents at $24.61
WBC – WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – down eight cents at $21.53
All four big banks have passed on the full central bank rate cut, saying they want to support customers in a tough economic period even though their own costs are rising.
AWE – AWE LTD – up 5.5 cents at $1.455
Oil and gas producer AWE has sold down its interests in the Tasmanian Bass Basin joint venture and will pay a special dividend to its shareholders.
BOQ – BANK OF QUEENSLAND LTD – down 14 cents at $7.99
The head of Bank of Queensland says a decisive cut to its interest rates will hopefully boost the bank’s bottom line in the long term.
ILU – ILUKA RESOURCES LTD – up 89 cents at $16.68
Minerals sands miner Iluka Resources has secured higher prices for the supply of rutile and synthetic rutile in the first half of 2012.
QRN – QR NATIONAL LTD – up one cent at $3.43
The competition watchdog will allow six coal miners, including Rio Tinto, to collectively bargain with QR National for access to its rail network linking Queensland’s Bowen Basin to the Abbott Point port
RIO – RIO TINTO LTD – down 16 cents at $66.09
A subsidiary of mining giant Rio Tinto Ltd has been fined $160,000 after admitting to a large fuel spill in the Northern Territory last year.
WPL – WOODSIDE PETROLEUM LTD – down 76 cents at $32.90
Woodside Petroleum has approved development of a $2.5 gas project off the north-west coast of Western Australia but softer oil prices sent its share price lower.
