Aust stocks expected to open lower

Sunday, July 05, 2009 » 03:59pm


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The Australian share market is expected to open slightly lower on Monday, with no lead from United States markets, before investor attention turns to interest rates.

US markets were closed on Friday for the Independence Day holiday.

European stock exchanges were not very active on Friday considering there was no direction from Wall Street.

The London FTSE 100 index nudged up 2.01 points, or 0.05 per cent, to 4,236.28 points, and the CAC 40 index in Paris gained 3.1 points, or 0.10 per cent, at 3,119.51 points.

CommSec chief economist Craig James said the start to trading on the Australian market on Monday should be 'fairly uneventful'.

'We had the US markets closed, European markets didn't really do too much, futures is pointing to a fall of seven points at the start of trade,' Mr James said.

Mr James said investors were bracing themselves for the start of the financial results reporting season in the US.

'There is a fair bit of economic data here as well, and we've got a Reserve Bank (of Australia) board meeting, which will get a little bit more attention than we would have expected a week or so ago, given the weak US payrolls report (last week),' he said.

Mr James said the RBA was expected to keep interest rates on hold, but if it were to spring a surprise, it might cut rates by 25 basis points.

All of the 19 economists surveyed by AAP expected the RBA to leave the cash rate at a 49-year low of three per cent at Tuesday's board meeting, as more signs emerge that the economy is faring better than most amid the global recession.

On Thursday on Wall Street, ahead of the long weekend in the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index lost 223.32 points, or 2.63 per cent, to 8,280.74 on the back of worse-than-expected US unemployment figures.

On Friday, the Australian bourse closed lower. The benchmark SP/ASX200 index fell 49.1 points, or 1.27 per cent, to 3828.2 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index shed 48.6 points, or 1.25 per cent, to 3826.6 points.

On the company news front this week, sugar refining and building products CSR Ltd holds its annual general meeting on Thursday.

On the economic front, the ANZ job advertisements survey for June is released on Monday; the RBA meets on Tuesday; on Wednesday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) releases housing finance data for May; and on Thursday, the ABS labour force data for June is out.