Asia Business News

Aust Market Outlook, (ASX: STO), (ASX: RIO)

Wednesday September 19 8:35 AM

Sydney, Australia, Sept 19, 2007 - (ABN Newswire) - Australian shares are set to rise sharply this morning, after a hefty interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve lifted hopes that housing and credit market turmoil will not hurt the world's biggest economy. US exposed firms and financial shares are likely to lead the rise.

On Tuesday the benchmark S&P/ASX200 fell 79 points to 6,193. On the futures market the SPI200 is up 140.

Turning to currencies, the Australian dollar surged after the US interest rate cut, and at 8:40 AM is buying 85.05 US cents, on the crosses the dollar is buying 98.6 yen, 60.83 Euro cents, and 42.25 British pence.

The full report is available at the following video and audio links.

Video Link

http://abnnewswire.net/fnnlnk/8927R915


Audio Link

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/CB7F6F1F


Making news headlines this morning is Santos. Shares in the oil and gas company were up 0.22% to $13.65 cents on the ASX Tuesday. Santos is reportedly looking to double the size of a proposed carbon storage facility at Moomba in South Australia. The company is in discussions with the federal government about funding for the first phase of the project, which could cost in excess of $700 million. Santos officials said if the financial support comes through the project could be providing significant carbon storage within five years, and that it's already in discussions with major coal companies willing to use the hub. Santos has been profitable since 2002, but saw earnings ease in 2006 from the previous year.

Rio Tinto shares last traded down 0.65% to $97.51. The Aussie giant is moving towards a partnership with junior mineral explorer Zambezi Resources for a project in Zambia. Under the proposed deal Rio can earn up to 51 per cent uranium rights to the project - which also contains copper, gold, silver and cobalt. It will cost Rio around $1 million dollars to assess the uranium mineralisation, and then it may elect to spend close to an additional $6 million to earn 51 per cent of the uranium mineral rights. Rio Tinto posted steadily increasing earnings since 2002.

The S&P/ASX top 200 company trading ex-dividend today is IOOF Holdings with an 18 cent fully franked dividend to be paid on the 11th of October.

To international markets, US markets experienced their biggest one day percentage point surge in years after the fed slashed interest rates; The Dow Jones Industrials soared 336, the S&P500 rallied 43 and the Nasdaq composite advanced 70 points.

European shares rallied led by banks and financial shares; London's FTSE was up 101 points; Paris increased 110, and Frankfurt jumped 95.

The rally has not yet filtered to Asian markets, which were mixed yesterday; Hong Kong's Hang Sang lost 22 points; Tokyo's Nikkei was plummeted 326, but China's SSE Composite lifted 4.

Back to the US, gold lost 10 cents to $723.70 US an ounce for the spot contract on Comex, Silver added 3 cents to $12.93, copper gained 3 cents for the second day in a row to $3.45.

And finally, oil hit a record high for the second straight day, adding 94 cents to $81.51 for October light crude in New York.

Source: Finance News Network © 2007 http://www.finnewsnetwork.com.au

About Finance News Network

Finance News Network (FNN) has been producing up-to-date concise business and finance news tailored to traders and investors alike since 2002. FNN content reaches a diverse and constantly growing audience via online streaming video, Street Vision broadcasts and the Telstra 3G mobile phone network.
http://www.finnewsnetwork.com.au


Source:
ABN http://www.ABNnewswire.net

Copyright (C) 2007 ABN Newswire. All rights reserved.
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