Posts Tagged ‘traders’

Future Fund sells Telstra

Friday, August 21st, 2009

The government’s Future Fund has offloaded more than a quarter of its holding in Telstra, reducing its stake to 10.5%.

This sale brings in $2.4 billion for the fund, and comes after earning $144.5 million in dividends since the T3 float in 2006.

Analysts believe the fund’s managers have been seeking to diversify their portfolio and take advantage of the general rise in the markets.

The shares were sold yesterday through a book-build run by investment bank UBS at $3.47, a 5% discount on the closing price, and UBS has been selling them on to institutional investors overnight. The impact on the share price can be seen by this chart of early trading today:

ASX Code: TLS
Chart from Market Analsyer – click here for a free 14-day software trial.

For more details on this news story:

Post to Twitter

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in ASX Company News | No Comments

ASX Share Ownership Study

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

The ASX has released the results of a Share Ownership Study conducted in November and December last year, providing some interesting insights into investor activity, confidence, processes and behaviour.

The survey indicates that 41% of adult Australians own shares, down from 55% in 2004. A focus on reducing debt, volatile market conditions and a gloomy economic outlook are cited as reasons for the decrease in share ownership.

Among the key stats and behavioural insights:

  • retail investors have reduced the mean number of shares in their portfolios from 8 to 7
  • the level of uncertainty in the market has increased, with more investors leaning towards the perceived safety of blue-chip shares
  • 22% of retail investors expect to buy shares in the next 12 months, which indicates a sense of optimism
  • the proportion of adult Australian men who are share owners has remained steady at 40%, however the proportion of women has declined from 37% to 30% in 2 years
  • while the average value of trades has increased slightly from 2006, the average value invested has declined sharply
  • 70% of direct investment share owners use online brokers to buy and sell shares

To read the full survey, click here to go to the ASX website.

Post to Twitter

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in ASX Company News | No Comments

The Festival of Company Reporting

Monday, February 23rd, 2009

Company reporting season is in full swing, and this week will be a particularly busy one. It s also expected to be fairly unpleasant, as the impact of the economic flop will be reinforced by results from some of our biggest companies.

Keep an eye out for how the market responds when some of these companies release their annual and half-year results:

Monday

  • Transfield, Fairfax Media, Bluescope Steel and Virgin Blue first-half results
  • Thinksmart annual results

Tuesday

  • Oil Search, Spark Infrastructure, and Aristocrat Leisure annual results
  • Macquarie Media, AWE, B&B Wind Partners and Suncorp first-half results

Wednesday

  • APN News & Media Communications and Macquarie Airports annual results
  • APA Group and NIB half-year results
  • Asciano, ConnectEast, Pacific Brands, Seven Network, Goodman Fielder, Macquarie Telecom, B&B Infrastructure, Breville and Mortgage Choice first-half results

Thursday

  • Wesfield and Boart Longyear annual results
  • Telstra, IAG, Lend Lease, Origin Energy, Gunns, Village Roadshow, Toll, Tatts and Flight Centre first-half results
  • Lion Nathan, Arana Therapeutics, Rox Resources and Fall River Resources AGMs

Friday

  • QBE Insurance and Funtastic annual results
  • Crown, PaperlinX, Nylex, Woolworths, Harvey Norman, Consolidated Media and B&B Power half-year results
  • B&B Capital and SP Telemedia GMs
  • Timbercorp AGM

Auditors will be paying particular attention to results from small companies this reporting season, with concerns that many may be unable to guarantee being in business for another year. An article in today s Australian Financial Review suggests that though the credit crunch may impact on results the concerns raised by auditors should not necessarily be a red light for investors.

Post to Twitter

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in ASX Company News | No Comments