The Australian share market has edged higher as National Australia Bank’s half-year earnings report met expectations and supported the banking sector.
But BHP Billiton continued to slide in the wake of a lower price for iron ore and copper, and Brazil’s $US43 billion ($A57.4 billion) law suit against the global miner over the Samarco tailings dam disaster.
IG market analyst Angus Nicholson said the fact that NAB’s earnings report came in largely in line with expectations had assured a lot of investors in the banking sector.
“Gains by banking stocks have really helped hold up the index as a whole today – that was the big saviour,” Mr Nicholson said.
He said energy stocks were boosted by a lift in the oil spot price that followed news of a massive wildfire in Canada’s oil sands region in Alberta.
However, generally, the movement in commodity prices had been down, said Mr Nicholson, and that was reflected in further falls in BHP Billiton.
He said healthcare stocks were sold off on Thursday as investors more closely considered medical spending cuts in the recent federal budget.
Among the major banks, National Australia Bank rose 54 cents, or 1.98 per cent, to $27.84.
NAB Bank has improved margins and lifted first-half cash earnings 6.5 per cent to $3.31 billion and kept its interim dividend unchanged.
Among the other big banks, Commonwealth Bank gained 24 cents to $74.85, ANZ lifted 44 cents to $25.34, and Westpac firmed 19 cents to $30.49.
In the resources sector, BHP Billiton fell 36 cents to $18.43, and Fortescue Metals lost 10 cents at $3.03.
Rio Tinto gained 21 cents at $48.06. Rio Tinto’s chairman has reiterated that the mining giant has no plans to expand its iron ore production capacity in the near future.
Oil and gas producer Woodside Petroleum was steady at $27.10, and Santos advanced 11 cents to $4.31.
Primary Health Care scraped off one cent at $3.51, and Ramsay Health Care slipped 35 cents to $66.71.
Among other stocks, Crown Resorts shares have jumped 58 cents, or 4.91 per cent, to $12.40 as investors welcomed the casinos operator’s cut to its stake in its Macau joint-venture, Melco Crown Entertainment.
KEY FACTS:
* At 1623 AEST, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up eight points, or 0.15 per cent, at 5,279.1 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was up 8.9 points, or 0.17 per cent, at 5,344.5 points.
* The June share price index futures contract was up 14 points at 5,264 points, with 29,096 contracts traded, according to preliminary calculations.
* National turnover was 3.4 billion securities traded, worth $6.4 billion.
