The Australian market has opened slightly higher as investors await the outcome of a Bank of Japan policy meeting.
At 1025 AEDT on Tuesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 7.7 points, or 0.16 per cent, at 4,785.2 and the broader All Ordinaries index had added 7.9 points, or 0.16 per cent, to 4,810.1.
On the ASX 24, the March share price index futures contract was up nine points at 4,752 with 3,367 contracts traded.
IG Markets analyst Stan Shamu said the Australian market was off to a mildly positive start despite limited leads with Wall Street closed for the Martin Luther King Jnr public holiday.
“The US markets were closed so it really limits the leads coming into today’s session,” he said.
“The main attraction in Asia today will be the Bank of Japan policy decision where they are expected to announce a stimulus (plan).”
Japan’s central bank is expected announce a two per cent inflation target and possible measures to stimulate the economy when it wraps up its two-day meeting on Tuesday.
Internationally, European share prices rose, with London hitting a near five-year high in light trading amid a public holiday in the United States, although the luxury goods sector was tarnished by a gloomy outlook from the Swiss group Richemont.
London’s FTSE 100 index of top companies gained 0.43 per cent on Monday to 6,180.98 points, a level unseen since May 2008.
Locally, Macmahon Holdings shares were four cents, or 15.7 per cent, higher at 29.5 cents at 1011 AEDT after news it had won a $1.8 billion deal to help Fortescue Metals Group expand its Christmas Creek iron ore mine in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.
Fortescue shares were eight cents higher at $4.61.
The other mining giants opened higher.
Rio Tinto surged 69 cents to $67.14, while BHP Billiton gained four cents to $36.58.
National Australia Bank shares tumbled 20 cents, or 0.74 per cent, after reports that Spanish financial giant Santander had denied it was considering buying NAB’s troubled UK banks.
The other three major banks were mixed at open.
Commonwealth Bank shares fell 13 cents to $62.07, ANZ added six cents to $25.75 and Westpac gained six cents to $26.54.
At 1044 AEDT national turnover was 378.9 million shares worth $525.3 million, with 330 stocks up, 268 down and 274 unchanged.
