News from AAP

Stocks to watch Wednesday

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Stocks to watch on the Australian stock exchange at noon on Wednesday:

ANZ – AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LTD – down 53 cents, or 2.48 per cent, at $20.83

ANZ cuts its variable interest rate by 25 basis points.

NAB – NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK – down 67 cents, or 2.67 per cent, at $24.43

National Australia Bank (NAB) has cut its standard variable home loan interest rate by less than its peers and the central bank.

MGR – MIRVAC GROUP – down two cents, or 1.57 per cent, at $1.25

Mirvac Group has re-affirmed its earnings forecast, saying it has a 97.8 per cent portfolio occupancy rate and had realised $127 million from its 2012 financial year asset sale program.

OST – ONESTEEL LTD – down 19 cents, or 15.83 per cent, at $1.01

Shares in OneSteel plunged 16 per cent to a decade low after the company revised down its earnings guidance because of the recent fall in the iron ore price and rise in the Australian dollar.

QAN – QANTAS AIRWAYS LTD – down 4.5 cents, or 2.76 per cent, at $1.585

VBA – VIRGIN BLUE HOLDINGS LTD – down 0.5 cents, or 1.35 per cent, at 36.5 cents

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says speculation over when he found out about Qantas’s decision to ground its fleet is an “exercise in muddying the waters”.

Separately: Outspoken Labor backbencher Doug Cameron says the government will have to consider changing the Fair Work Act to make sure companies can’t abuse the law like he says Qantas did on the weekend.

Separately: Qantas Airways’ bookings should improve in the period ahead as the end of work stoppages brings greater certainty to the Flying Kangaroos’ schedule, analysts say.

SGP – STOCKLAND GROUP – down seven cents, or 2.24 per cent, at $3.06

Property group Stockland has sold, for $172.2 million, its interest in the office building in Sydney’s Martin Place that houses the Seven Network’s news headquarters.

WBC – WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – down 73 cents, or 3.33 per cent, at $21.21

Westpac posts a 10 per cent rise in full year profit, to $6.991 billion.

WOW – WOOLWORTHS LTD – down six cents, or 0.25 per cent, at $23.61

Woolworths says it has the potential to add $2.5 billion in fresh food sales, and plans to create 10,000 new jobs in Australia and New Zealand in financial year 2012.