The Australian share market has closed modestly higher as investors put aside geopolitical concerns arising from the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 and focused on company earnings reports in the United States.
Lonsec senior client adviser Michael Heffernan said the loss of almost 300 lives on the downed aircraft was tragic but, as far as the market was concerned, events such as this tended to have a short-term effect.
“The more important thing as far as the market is concerned is what’s going on with reporting season (company earnings reports in the United States), inflation, growth and interest rates,” Mr Heffernan said.
He said most of the earnings reports from US companies had been positive, and, overall, had been better than expected.
“We’ve had the rub-off effects here,” he said.
Mr Heffernan said the local bourse was consolidating above the 5,500-point mark now, ahead of the start of the Australian company reporting season in two weeks.
In the resources sector, lower iron ore prices weighed on the big miners. According to preliminary closing figures, global miner BHP Billiton fell 17 cents to $38.22, Rio Tinto reversed 59 cents to $63.70, and Fortescue Metals eased two cents to $4.57.
Steel and mining group Arrium backtracked 2.5 cents to 75.5 cents after it accepted discounted prices on its iron ore shipments due to additional supply and tightening credit growth in China.
Boart Longyear jumped 1.8 cents to 10.5 cents despite ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgrading the mining company’s credit rating, citing ongoing poor performance.
Caltex Australia strengthened 94 cents to $24.00 after reporting improved refinery sales for the year to June.
The big banks were mixed. Commonwealth Bank rose nine cents to $81.36, Westpac was steady at $33.90, ANZ sagged three cents at $33.39, and National Australia Bank lifted seven cents to $34.25.
Fairfax Media had gained 1.5 cents to 92.5 cents, following media reports that billionaire Gina Rinehart is considering launching a takeover bid for the company.
KEY FACTS
* At the 1615 AEST close on Monday, preliminary figures showed that the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 8.2 points, or 0.15 per cent, at 5,539.9 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was up 9.5 points, or 0.17 per cent, at 5,528.7 points.
* The September share price index futures contract at 1626 AEST was 15 points higher at 5,500 points, with 15,408 contracts traded.
* Preliminary national turnover was 1.6 billion securities worth $2.65 billion.
