The Australian share market or S&P/ASX 200 (INDEXASX: XJO)(ASX: XJO) index is expected to open higher Thursday morning, according to data from the Sydney Futures Exchange.
Here’s the key headline data:
SFE ASX 200 futures: +25 points
Australian Dollar ($A) (AUDUSD): 77.87 US cents
Dow Jones (DJI): down 0.2%
Oil (WTI): $US68.70 per barrel
Gold: $US1,354 per ounce
Overnight, London-listed shares of BHP Billiton Limited (ASX: BHP) and Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) finished 5.5% and 5.3% higher, respectively, according to Yahoo! Finance.
Australian Investing News
Making news in Australia and on the ASX, BHP Billiton released its nine-month operational review showing an 8% fall, 37% gain and 2% increase in the production of petroleum, copper and iron ore, respectively.
BHP also confirmed its full-year production guidance for petroleum and coal. Its iron ore guidance has been reduced to between 272 million tonnes and 274 million tonnes while copper production guidance was narrowed to between 1,700 kilotonnes and 1,785 kilotonnes.
Annuities provider Challenger Ltd (ASX: CGF) reported a 3% increase in total assets under management during its third quarter. “Disciplined implementation of our strategy is continuing to drive business diversification and very healthy growth in assets under management, increasing by $12 billion in the past year,” CEO Brian Benari said.
Evolution Ltd (ASX: EVN), the gold mining company, released its third-quarter report. For the nine months through March 2018, Evolution produced 598,933 ounces of gold at an average all-in sustaining cost of $780 per ounce.
South32 Ltd’s (ASX: S32) quarterly report revealed modest falls in production in some commodity groups. “We delivered production records at Mozal Aluminium and Australia Manganese and have increased full year guidance for both of our manganese operations in light of strong market demand,” Graham Kerr, South32 CEO said.
Finally, shipbuilder Austal Ltd (ASX: ASB) announced a contract for two Guardian Class Pacific Patrol Board for Timor Leste. The contracts are worth $29.7 million for Austal.
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