Funds

Thursday, 1 July 2010

Australia Equities

Australian shares continued their losing streak to end down 1 percent on Wednesday. The market was dominated by slides in the miners and top investment bank Macquarie Group on jitters about the global growth outlook renewed investors fears.

Overall the market ended the first half of the year down 11.7% with investors flocking to the sidelines, sapping market volumes, until they see more evidence of a solid global economic recovery and see Australia's mining tax battle resolved.

The Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index declined 1% to close at 4,301.50 at the close of trading in Sydney, the lowest close since May 25."

Amongst the miners,  global miner Rio Tinto fell 2.6% to close at $66.67, while bigger rival BNP Billiton also dipped 1.2% to close at $37.65 after a steep fall in metals prices overnight on worries that demand growth may wane.

The banks were all weaker, with all of the major bank closing lower. Amongst the banks, CBA closed down 1.50% to close at $48.64. Rival ANZ closed down 1.19% to close at $21.61. Elsewhere rival WBC was also lower down 0.09% to close $21.23.

US Equities

In the US stocks continued, stockserased gains, wiping out the 0.7% rally in the S&P 500 Index, after Moody's Investors Service Inc. said it may downgrade Spain's Aaa credit rating.

The S&P 500 closed the financial year at 9774.0, closing down 10.53 points or 1.01%. The S&P 500 has declined 11% since March 31, breaking a four-quarter winning streak that drove the benchmark index for U.S. stocks up 47%

The Dow Jones Industrial average was also lower down 96.28 points to close at 9,774 or .98% It has declined 12% since March 31. The Dow fell 10% for the quarter.

Euro Equities

U.K. stocks were little changed as the European Central Bank said it will lend banks less than economists had forecast.

The FTSE 100 rose 2.65 or less than 0.1% to 4,916.87 after yesterday closing at a 10-month low. The FTSE 100 has declined 13% this quarter on concern a sovereign-debt crisis in Europe is spreading and authorities in China are moving to cool the world's largest emerging economy.

European stocks pared earlier gains today after a report showed companies in the U.S. added fewer workers to payrolls in June than forecast. The 13,000 gain followed a revised 57,000 increase the prior month, data from ADP Employer Services showed

Asian Equities

Asian stocks followed their western counterparts.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 was weaker, the Nikkei closed down 188.03 or 1.96% to close at 9,382.6.

Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was also weaker down 119.91 points to close at 20,129,.0 down 0.59%