$ Australian Asx Stock Market Watch

What happens when mining companies takeover TV , Newspaper and radio channels

2012-02-11T20:28:00.001-08:00

These are the times for common man to worry when Large corporations have a vested interest in the large media companies and COULD POSSIBLY OWN THEM and run them for their own benefit . We saw the big ad campaigns being run TV , MEDIA AND RADIO against the mining taxes on these mining companies ( costing millions of dollars) by Mining companies when there was a risk to their big mining profits and pockets, when the Government were planning to introduce New mining taxes. With mining companies now directly having a stake in media companies this could be a game changer for them.

GINA RINEHART ( Australia's richest person thanks to her iron ore fortune in the Pilbara ) last night joined the ranks of Australia's media barons after becoming the biggest shareholder in Fairfax Media.

The company ( Fairfax Media ) for which she is now one of the major shareholder runs Various Influential NEWSPAPERS AND RADIO STATIONS like www.smh.com.au , The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Financial Review, radio station 3AW

Lachlan Murdoch also personally controls 50% of radio company DMG

According to “get up”

“In July last year, climate-denialist Christopher Monckton advised mining industry insiders to create a US-style Fox News channel in Australia, supported by the "super wealthy" in order to provide supportive coverage for the mining industry. The video, filmed in the boardrooms of pro-mining organisation “Mannkal Economic Education Foundation”, shows Mr Monckton offering to work with commentators such as Andrew Bolt to establish the channel.”

In relation to this video , you can read his article here: Monckton to Push for an Australian Fox News to get an idea of what is currently happening

GetUp is an independent, grass-roots community advocacy organisation which aims to build a more progressive Australia by giving everyday Australians the opportunity to get involved and hold politicians accountable on important issues.

Articles in relation to this

Gina Rinehart lines up Fairfax to expand media influence – australian.com.au

Gina Rinehart, Australian mining magnate and now media mogul – the guardian.co.uk

http://campaignfortruth.com/vestedmedia.htm – campaign for truth

GINA RINEHART takes Big stake in media company fairfax – smh

Biggest tech IPO Facebook rumored to be in the pipeline

2012-01-30T05:00:00.001-08:00

Tech companies ipo’s have been pretty unexciting so far and not lived up to people expectations , but the facebook Ipo could possibly change this. Facebook is no one of the most popular social network website in the world and continues to expand at a rapid pace. Facebook has entered the homes of billions of people and become part of their lives wether it being a uprising ,flash mobs organising, riots information and social sharing, or then just LIKE.

Ref: http://www.behance.net/gallery/Adidas-Facebook-Superstars/817509

The Wall Street Journal ( financial newspaper) reports that Facebook is preparing to file initial paperwork for an offering that could raise as much as $US10 billion ($9.38 billion) and value the company at $US75 billion to $US100 billion.

Some Major ipo’s raised previously

Visa Inc's $US17.9 billion IPO ( March 2008 )
Agricultural Bank of China Ltd $US19.3 billion( July 2010 )

Facebook and its valuation

“Facebook's IPO” is reported to be one of the biggest for a US Internet company - topping the debut of one of its main rivals, Google . Facebook's reported valuation of $US75 billion to $US100 billion compares with many other major US companies valuation as listed below.

$US100 billion for McDonald's Corp
$90 billion for Citigroup Inc
$US55 billion for Hewlett-Packard Co
$90 billion Amazon.com Inc
$US75 billion for Bank of America Corp .

The other giants like APPLE have giant market capitalisations in comparison APPLE ( US$ 417 Billion) ,Microsoft (US$245 Billion) and Google (US$188 Billion). Founder Mark Zuckenberg has been saying that Facebook is in no hurry to list, but the US securities and exchange commission requires companies that have assets worth more than US$ 10 Million and 500 shareholders to disclose details of their financial performance making it harder for the facebook IPO to not come any sooner.

A collection of Links– Can too much analysis causes paralysis

2011-12-22T03:41:00.001-08:00

A good collection of links from economic factors to stock market analysis

Articles to ponder and read

Joseph Stiglitz re-examines the cause of the Great Depression and applies it to today. Click here.
And here The Economist responds to him. (It's rubbish, they say.) Click here.
Christopher Hitchens is dead. He was a great writer and independent thinker. Here he is talking about the art of writing and life in general. Click here.
Here's his website, called The Daily Hitchens. Click here.
Here is a compendium of his outburts (quotes). Click here.
A nice piece in New Yorker by his friend Christopher Buckley. Click here.
A collection of his articles put together by Slate. Click here.
And finally, here he is in debate on the question: can morality exist without God. Click here.
What went wrong with the Freakonomics formula. Click here.
Europe: The Brussels plan is a decent stopgap. But if Europe's countries in crisis can't hold out long enough to start growing their economies again, it won't matter. Click here.
Ric Battelino's excellent speech about Europe and the effect on the banks and Australia. Click here.
This was a terrific interview by Phillip Adams with Stratfor's George Friedman on "The Next Decade". Click here.
Market conditions have switched to "Hard-Negative", says John Hussman. Click here.
Europe is systemically important for at least three huge reasons. Click here.
Zero Hedge on the Australian bank stress tests. Click here.
19th Century 'Protestant Work Ethic' at Heart of Europe’s North/South Debt Crisis Split. Click here.

Bankers get with the chrissy spirit !!

2011-12-09T04:41:00.001-08:00

The small credit unions( BANK OF QUEENSLAND & MEMBERS EQUITY BANK ) jump started the Christmas spirit with passing on the full rate cut and t he big four followed suit to brighten up everybody's Christmas.

In spite of the sorry looking state of affairs in Europe and the US , our banks have weathered this financial crisis much better than some other countries and have given the aussies some respite this Christmas by passing the full rate cut to mortgage holders. This will come a s a big relief to many home owners who have been faced with mortgage stress.

Among the “big four banks” ANZ was the first of the big four to announce it was passing on the official quarter of a percentage point interest rate cut

Banks that passed the official quarter of a percentage point interest rate cut

ANZ BANK
NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK
COMMONWEALTH BANK
WESTPAC BANK
BANK OF QUEENSLAND
MEMBERS EQUITY BANK

While the economy is booming and the royalties from our mines which are flowing into the government coffers, there has been a rise in insolvencies with small businesses due to the one speed economy resulting in loss of jobs and mortgage stress.

Australians will get a breather with the rate cut and many will be opening their purse strings bit to splurge on some Christmas shopping also resulting in some cheer for the aussie retailers , who have been experiencing a gloom rather than the boom the mining sector is enjoying.

Technology start ups in the news with Deloitte and silicon valley funding

2011-11-17T21:17:00.001-08:00

Deloitte Australia has just announced Technology top 50 companies that have made a name for themselves and are growing rapidly. The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 is a program that recognises and profiles Australian technology companies, public or private, that have had rapid annual revenue growth.

Deloitte TOP 50 TECHNOLOGY companies

The program is supported by many interactive events and online forums, newsletters and seminars- available to all entrants - which will help you to grow the business.

Read and download the 2010 'The Winners Report' (PDF)

Australian Tech start-ups and funding

Many silicon valley companies and funding ventures are looking at australia as a major new country where many innovative start-ups are rapidly spawning and in recent months received million of $$ in funding money.
Some of the people and companies investing in australia are , YCombinator , US venture capital firm Accel Partners.
Startmate and Pollenizer are Australian companies that curently source funding for promising new Australian start-up's at the moment.

Start Me Up - The Rolling Stones (HQ Audio)

Stock market and High frequency trading

2011-09-16T16:35:00.001-07:00

High frequency and computerised trading and rogue trading is again in the news with trader Mr Adoboli working for UBS who was arrested at his desk, is alleged to have lost £1.3 billion through his rogue trades according to the company , now also annoucing that they might go into a loss in this quarter. According to some reports in the media it was said that Mr Adoboli Himself had reported the trade when the trade went bad before the computers picked up the loss.

Not so long ago in 2008 Jérôme Kerviel, the Paris-based Société Générale trader lost £4 billion in rogue trades, but fought it out in court contesting that the trading firm knew about his trades with large amounts.

High frequency computerised trading in Australia

HFT drives the wild swings in global markets and in co-relation influences the local assets, the intensity is expected to rise with online exchange Chi-X to begin operating in Australia soon with a limited number of stocks in November. The ASX will launch its PureMatch trade transaction network, geared towards "attracting high-frequency trading customers", in the same month.

Trading robots and Investment firms

A High frequency Trading ( HFT ) program is essentially "robots" or custom created software trading the market. This software is custom made for big investment firms , so that they can use this software on high end computers to execute them fast on the market , when certain criteria are met( for eg the price of s stock falls a certain percentage quickly then the software can sell the stock rapidly, these trades sometimes takes multiple criteria and factors to execute a trade).The software are often also called “trading robots”. These robots or programs can also be describes as “Computer platform that allows the Financial Institution to engage in sophisticated high-speed, and high-volume trades on various stock and commodities markets. “ Among other things, the platform is capable of quickly obtaining and processing information regarding rapid developments in these markets.

"The problem is that so many of them are tied to look for the same price movements. So if one robot starts buying it just feeds all the other bots to do the same. It’s one factor contributing to these ridiculous swings you see on the markets." .At the same time sometimes when one robot of a big investment firms sells this can create a price drop on a stock, this can trigger another robot also to sell, thus creating a big sell off on the market as well. The big investment firms are quite secretive of the the algorithm that their robots trade on , as other trading firms can take advantage of this knowledge
The rapid speed of this approach allows hedge funds and banks to dip into shares, commodities and other investments, sometimes in a matter of seconds to do massive trades to realise big profits. Goldman Sachs is a leader in the business of computed millisecond stock trades, reaping great profits from the transactions.

Recently ,computer trading software was in the news when according to media reports Sergey Aleynikov, tried to steal the computer trading software from Goldman’s Sachs automated stock and commodities trading business program.These software helps generate millions of dollars in profits each year.

When huge volumes of stock are moved or traded in such short time, fortunes are made and lost before anyone without such fast access can respond. The market changes in a blink of an eye faster than the trader on the floor can pick up his phone. Australia does not allow for the kinds of arbitrage trading seen between trading platforms in the US and Europe. Critics say HFT is arbitrage, because it’s "getting something for nothing." which means that everyone pays, though many traders argue that HFT is no different from day-trading or even “buy and hold” and therefore is not arbitrage.

In Australia, a high-profile court case between two local market heavyweights, Optiver and Tibra Capital, was in courts amid intense secrecy over revealing computer codes used in the trading strategy because of their incredible value

Flash trades Algorithmic trading and “Wash trades”

Traders Magazine defined Flash trading, otherwise known as a flash order as “a marketable order sent to a market centre that is not quoting the industry's best price or that cannot fill that order in its entirety. The order is then flashed to recipients of the venue's proprietary data feed to see if any of those firms wants to take the other side of the order. This practice enables the market centre to try to keep the trade.

The practice of flashing orders across trading platforms helps providers of market liquidity, many of whom are high-frequency traders with powerful computer trading systems, to attract "buy" and "sell" orders from investors. Critics of the practice says sometimes some big traders can unfairly exploit others with this method.

An ASX review details ''wash trades'', with the information that a wash trade ''is deemed to create a false and misleading appearance of active trading in a security'' and breaches the Corporations Act

The European Commission, the 27-nation European Union’s executive arm, is considering listing specific examples of strategies using algorithmic and high-frequency trading that should be punished by regulators as market manipulation

Australia , ASIC and High frequency trading

Electronic traders have been active in the Australian Stock market for several years. The most recent estimates suggest that high-frequency traders (HFT) make up about 20 per cent of the local share market's trades. ASIC has flagged tightening controls on stockbrokers that allow hedge funds to use their systems for high-frequency electronic trading as it prepares to open the Australian market to high-frequency trading groups

Links

Market Makers and High Frequency Trading

Cash-cow---high-frequency-trading

Australian equity market structure

Technorati Tags: Quick trading software,HFT,High Speed trading,Software trading,Dark pool markets,Computerised Trades,Algo trading,Wash trades,Australian Trading policy,ASIC,ASX,CHI-X,Electronic trading,Digital,Stock,High,frequency,rogue,Jerome kerviel,Paris,societe generale,robots,robot,factor,algorithm,advantage,Goldman,Sachs,Sergey

The diggers and dealers forum meet 2011

2011-08-02T07:00:00.001-07:00

The diggers and dealers forum has just begun August 1. Its a three day annual event happening every year at the WA country town of kalgoorlie.

2011 Diggers & Dealers forum

Big name brokers keenly watching the event will be

Macquarie
Deutsche Bank
Bell Potter
Goldman Sachs
RBS Morgans
Evans & Partners
Hartleys
Black Swan
Euroz.

Well most other websites will give you the finer details of the annual meet and greet that happens at kalgoorlie , so we will just stick with the bare minimum of details and focus on the more enjoyable bits of information that the dealers require to strike a good deal while in town.

Bare details

Website : Diggers & Dealers

Events : Program and schedule

Watering holes and entertainment at Diggers and dealers forum

Pubs , clubs and skimpy (barmaids) culture in kalgoorlie . There are about 25 pubs in Kalgoorlie-Boulder area and for a city that stretches just 67sq km the number of pubs makes for a good choice on drinking holes and entertainment

Exchange Hotel ( Paddys irish Bar) -135 Hannan St Kalgoorlie-Boulder 6430 WA (08) 9021 2833

Piccadilly Hotel - 164 Piccadilly Street, Kalgoorlie - (08) 9021 2109

North End Tavern - 25 Ward Street, Kalgoorlie - (08) 9021 2120

Broken Hill Hotel - Lane Street, Boulder WA 6432(08) 9093 1459 ‎

Kalgoorlie Hotel - 319 Hannan Street, Kalgoorlie WA 6430(08) 9021 3046 ‎

For Diggers and Dealers enquiries please contact:

Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum
PO Box 979, West Perth WA 6872
Email: admin@diggersndealers.com.au

Check out our older posts of Diggers and dealers 2009 , and also Diggers & dealers 2010 for more history and information on previous diggers and dealers events

Related Links:

Kalgoorlie, Western Australia at Kalgoorlie.info- www.kalgoorlie.com/ -
The Super Pit | KCGM - Largest Open Pit Mine in Australia -www.superpit.com.au
City Of Kalgoorlie-Boulder-www.kalbould.wa.gov.au/
http://www.kalgoorlietourism.com/node/58

The rise of the Carbon Companies 2011

2011-07-19T06:28:00.001-07:00

The creation of a $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), a Greens-led initiative, could provide a significant boost to emerging technologies such as solar, geothermal and wave, along with storage and hybrid schemes.

The Australian government has a target of a 5 per cent emissions reduction from 2000 levels by 2020

The word “carbon” by the looks of it has already overshadowed the word “sustainable” though both are rightly intertwined into each others destiny. Many renewable energy stocks have enjoyed a three-fold rebound in recent weeks.

Some Australian companies that might benefit from the new Government carbon and sustainable resources initiative

Petratherm (PTR) - Recent price 17.5¢
The company is conducting tests at its Paralana well, which could indicate whether it will be able to extract energy from the superheated rocks 4000 metres underground. If this process proves successful Petratherm will reap benefits for itself and its investors
Geodynamics (GDY) – Recent price 35¢
Geodynamics has been testing hot dry rock technology, drilling down to 5000 metres at its extensive resource (potentially 6000 megawatts) in the Cooper Basin. Geodynamics says it is well cashed up with $29 million in the bank, but says it is considering selling or leasing its drilling rigs to boost its reserves.

CARBON CONSCIOUS LIMITED (CCF) –
Recent price 0.295¢
Carbon Conscious Ltd is an Australian company producing carbon credits through 'carbon farming' - the planting of Mallee Eucalypt trees in Australia's wheatbelt region.

The “Australian Renewable Energy Agency” which has been created by the government initiative, will have an independent board and staff and will bring together about $3.2 billion of funding that has been reserved for demonstration projects in this new sector.

Ref :http://www.cafnec.org.au/

Some more carbon related Australian companies listed on ASX

CARBON MINERALS LIMITED (CRM) - Natural resources exploration in Australia
CARBON ENERGY LIMITED (CNX) -To produce clean energy and chemicals feedstock from Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) syngas
CO2 GROUP LIMITED (COZ) - Carbon Sequestration
CARNEGIE WAVE ENERGY LIMITED (CWE) - Wave Energy Technology Development

China and the Rare Earth Monopoly

2011-07-10T06:40:00.001-07:00

A boom has been undergoing in rare metal prices and has garnered a lot of attention for the "rare earth" Mining industry. With china holding the monopoly for rare earths with large deposits of rare earth in china and china also trying to control rare earth assets in Australia and other countries , they certainly indicate the preciousness and value of this commodity.

Chinese stranglehold on rare earths in global market

Rare earths are used in products including magnets, plasma TVs and smart phones, and there is a growing demand for more and more gadgets using these materials. Dysprosium a rare earth , which is processed to make magnets for hybrid cars and smartphones, has soared to $3,600 a kilogram, up from $300 a kg a year ago, while neodymium, also used in magnets, is hovering at about $450 a kg, up from $45 late last year.

Ref:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rareearthoxides.jpg
China, which controls more than 90 percent of the rare earths global market, has restricted rare-earth mining in china and cut exports to conserve resources and protect the environment. The prices of rare earths have more than doubled after China announced plans to centralise control over its rare earth mine assets.The Market Vectors Rare Earth/Strategic Metals ETF (REMX) in the US, for example, has been in an upward trend since last October.
The rare earths are likely to be cheaper within China, allowing Chinese manufacturers to buy rare earths at lower prices, which will allow them to transition to selling higher-value goods (like flat-panel screens for tablets, laptops, TVs, as well as batteries for hybrid cars) instead of low-value basic goods and electronics and therefore compete with japan in that sector.
The Japanese scientists recently discovered rare earth deposits Under the sea located on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, 3,500 to 6,000 meters (11,500 to 20,000 feet) below sea level but according to analysts developing the offshore bounty could take decades and cost billions, making it little more than a pipe dream. Japan is the largest consumer of the group of 17 metals after China, and the breakneck price jumps have hit them hard.

Australian Rare Earth Mining Projects

Lynas Corp., an Australian rare earths developer, and Siemens AG (SIE) have signed a agreemnet that will see Lynas supply minerals used in magnets to Europe’s largest engineering company under a joint venture agreement. Lynas owns the Mount Weld mine in Australia, plans to start up production by the end of the year, hitting 22,000 tonnes annually in 2013

Lynas Approx Stock market trading price - A$1.84
Alkane Resources (ALK)
Arafura Resources' (ARU)
Hastings Rare Metals (HAS)
Kimberley Rare Earths

Australia has an estimated 1.6 million tonnes of rare-earths reserves, according to the US Geological Survey, but the industry is still largely in the exploration phase. With feasibility studies underway in Australia in the Northern Territory and New South Wales, Australia could become a major player once again in this segment sooner that it as thought conceivable.

What exactly are rare earth metals?

They are used to make powerful permanent magnets for lightweight electric motors, phosphors for colour television and flat-panel displays, catalysts for cars and chemical refineries, rechargeable batteries for hybrid and electric cars, generators for wind turbines, as well as numerous optical, medical and military devices.

Rare earth mining in china, Mongolia

As defined by IUPAC, rare earth elements or rare earth metals are a set of seventeen chemical elements in the periodic table, specifically the fifteen lanthanoids plus scandium and yttrium.^] Scandium and yttrium are considered rare earth elements since they tend to occur in the same ore deposits as the lanthanoids and exhibit similar chemical properties.
These elements are commonly known as the lanthanide series and are divided into light rare earths (lanthanum–gadolinium) and heavy rare earths (terbium–lutetium). Scandium (Sc, atomic number 21), yttrium (Y, atomic number 39) and thorium (Th, atomic number 90) are also generally included in the rare earth group because of their similar chemical properties.

China currently produces and exports 97% of the world's supply of rare earths. The biggest and largest Rare Earth Elements (REE) deposit in the world is the Bayan Obo deposit in China, which has resources totaling at least 48 million tones of rare earth oxides (REO) out of a world total of 95.27 million tones. Rare earth deposits, however, are also found in many other countries, including Australia and the USA, and are not as rare as their name implies,even though there is shortage currently.

Some of the Rare earths Mining projects in the global market

1. Molycorp: Based in California US next year ramping up to output of 40,000 tonnes a year by late 2013. It is headquartered in Colorado.
2. Lynas Corp - Lynas Corporation Ltd is an ASX 100 listed company in Australia with its mine in Mount Weld in Western Australia, the richest known deposit of Rare Earths in the world
3. Avalon Rare Metals: It is a Canadian mineral exploration & development company with its main focus on the rare metals and minerals, headquartered in Toronto. .
4. Rare Element Resources Ltd.: It owns and operates the Bear Lodge mining facility in Wyoming in USA, which contains one of the largest disseminated rare-earth deposits in North America.
5. Quest Rare Minerals: It is a Canadian-based, exploration company focused on the discovery of new world-class Rare Earth deposit opportunities.
6. Great Western Minerals - Great Western Minerals Group is a Canadian-based company. Current properties include two rare earth projects in Saskatchewan, Canada, one in New Brunswick, Canada, one in Utah, USA, and one in South Africa (seeProjects
7. Arafura Resources - Arafura Resources a Australian resources company derives its name from the Arafura Sea, the body of water which lies to Australia’s north between the Northern Territory and New Guinea. It holds 12,000 km²of highly prospective ground in the under-explored Northern Territory of Australia.

Technorati Tags: praseodymium,cerium,lanthanum,neodymium,samarium,and gadolinium,lanthanum (La),cerium (Ce),praseodymium (Pr),neodymium (Nd),promethium (Pm),samarium (Sm),europium (Eu),gadolinium (Gd),terbium (Tb),dysprosium (Dy),holmium (Ho),erbium (Er),thulium (Tm),ytterbium (Yb) and lutetium (Lu).

LINKS:
http://outernode.pir.sa.gov.au/minerals/commodities/rare_earths
http://www.ga.gov.au/minerals/mineral-resources/rare-earth-.html

China & INDIA rising fast rising in the world banking sector

2011-06-18T06:55:00.001-07:00

The global financial crisis has definitely hastened the economic changing of the guard, putting China and India at the top of the world banking industry, according to international consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers.
"The emerging economies' banking sectors are expected to outgrow those in the developed economies by an even greater margin than we projected before the financial crisis,"

PWC report on Banking industry and China and INDIA emerging banks

PWC, in its just released report "Banking 2050", says the accelerating shift in economic power from the developed to emerging economies ( like India China Brazil) is dramatically changing the world banking industry. PWC's analysis suggests China and India could have a combined share of around 35 per cent of global banking assets by 2050.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) is the prudential regulator of the Australian financial services industry. It oversees banks, credit unions, building societies, general insurance and reinsurance companies, life insurance, friendly societies, and most members of the superannuation industry. The BANKS OF AUSTRALIA are regulated by APRA.
The last release of the Australian Banking Statisticsis for March 2002. Data from March 2004 onwards can be found in the Monthly Banking Statistics Publication. The Monthly Banking Statistics publication provides selected information on the banking business of individual banks within the domestic market.

The publication is available in two electronic formats, Adobe PDF for printing and Microsoft Excel for further analysis.

April 2011 (issued 31 May 2011): (PDF 236KB) (Excel 219KB)

March 2011 (issued 29 April 2011): (PDF 232KB) (Excel 275KB)

February 2011 (issued 31 March 2011): (PDF 232KB) (Excel 211 KB)

January 2011 (issued 28 February 2011): (PDF 235KB) (Excel 207KB)

Currently, the Australian banking sector is dominated by four major banks: Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank and Westpac Banking Corporation.

BRICS AND E7 To compete with G7

It says that by 2050, the leading "E7" emerging economies - China, India, Brazil, Russia, Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey - could have domestic banking assets and profits that exceed those in the G7 group ( United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada.) of leading developed countries by around 50 per cent, Some of these countries now are already known under the popular acronym “BRIC”. The acronym was coined by Jim O'Neill in a 2001. Other developing countries that have not yet reached the N-11 economic level, such as South Africa, aspire to BRIC status

Australian Banks In risk of takeovers By emerging economies

David Tripe, a senior lecturer in banking studies at Massey University, said the changes meant Australian banks - which own the four big banks in New Zealand - would need to stay on their toes.
The prospect of one of the Australian banks being taken over by some Chinese company or bank to acquire more of a global business could be a possibility in the future depending on the circumstances off course.
China could overtake the US in the size of its domestic banking sectors by around 2023, the report says. "India has particularly strong long-term growth potential and our projections suggest it could become the third-largest domestic banking sector by 2050 after China and the US, but ahead of Japan, the UK and Germany."
"India's rate of growth, by contrast, is expected to overtake that of China in the long run as it has more catch-up potential and its working-age population growth will be much stronger in the long term."
According to the report by PWC , "Although the exact transition dates are open to considerable uncertainty, it seems likely that China will have the largest domestic banking assets in the world at some point within the next 20-30 years and that India will move clearly into third place by 2050."

The bank sector in Australia consists of a number of banks licensed to carry on banking business under the Banking Act 1959, foreign banks licensed to operate through a branch in Australia, and Australian-incorporated foreign bank subsidiaries. The banking system is liquid, competitive and well developed
Historically, banking in Australia was tightly regulated. Until as recently as the 1980s, it was virtually impossible for a foreign bank to establish branches in Australia; consequently Australia had very few banks when compared with such places as the United States or Hong Kong.

Emerging economies, by contrast to the developed economies , were relatively shielded from the GFC and ensuing Europe crisis and after effects, leaving their banking systems in much better shape to fund long-term economic growth.
"The faster an economy develops, the faster its banking sector grows relative to the economy as a whole and thus we can see the emerging countries like china and india soon flexing their muscles in the emerging new banking world."

Cheap laptops

You can download the PWC report here – > Banking in 2050http://www.sheldonsingh.com/amazon/asus-eee-pc-netbook-1018pb/

End of year losses & europe crisis takes Australian markets down

2011-06-16T05:17:00.001-07:00

US manufacturing data and continued concerns about Greece's escalating debt crisis culminating with aussie traders and punters taking in the yearly losses before the end of financial year played a heavy toll on the Australian markets today

End of year profit or loss taking and Euro zone Greece concerns bring down market

Weak manufacturing data coming in from the US and protests in Greece, as euro-zone finance ministers failed to agree on a second bailout package for the debt-laden nation, set a negative tone for the local market in australia.

The sell-off was driven by a savage offloading of resources and financial stocks. BHP Billiton lost 89 cents, or 2.1 per cent, to $42.00 and Rio Tinto dropped $1.68, or 2.1 per cent, to $78.40.

NAB lost 39 cents to $24.26, ANZ dropped 47 cents to $21.35, Westpac shed 64 cents to $21.10 and Commonwealth Bank ended $1.06 lower at $49.26.

The Australian dollar was caught up in the negative sentiment, falling to $US1.0526, down from $US1.0688 on yesterday's close.

Asian Markets also In red In End of financial year trading

In Asia, the major markets of Hong Kong, Tokyo and Shanghai were down by more than 1 per cent. Some analysts said the approaching end of the financial year exacerbated today's losses.

"There is no institutional buying in the Australian market at the moment as it's only 10 trading days before June 30 so they can't put anything into their funds, they're all closed," said E.L. & C. Baillieu Stockbroking head analyst Ivor Ries. The northern hemisphere is on holiday, they're not opening any new long positions, and Australians can't buy. So a lot of the normal buying power in the market is out at the moment," he said.

The Indian stock market again moved into the red during the previous two hours of trade. The BSE-Sensexis trading down by 102 points, while NSE-Nifty is trading 34 points below the dotted line. The BSE Midcap and BSE Small cap indices are down by 0.7% and 0.4% respectively.

Royalties for Regions program to boost WA budget

2011-05-19T05:05:00.001-07:00

The “Royalties for Regions program”, which ensures 25 per cent of the state's mining and onshore petroleum royalties are spent in regional areas, is as good example of how the government can make use the mining boom to actually improve the living standards of even those not participating in the industry.

This program will ensure that WA gets a more equal spread of the dividends
A $600 million boost for social services announced after the WA budget will help answer the desperate calls from welfare organizations struggling to cope with the increased demand for their services.

Royalties for Regions is an historic agreement that underlines the State Government’s long-term focus on regional development throughout Western Australia.

Through Royalties for Regions, the equivalent of 25 per cent of the State’s mining and onshore petroleum royalties will be returned to the State’s regional areas each year as an additional investment in projects, infrastructure and community services.

The money is in addition to regular Budget programs and in 2009-10 it will provide an additional $619million for regional communities, this represents less than 4 per cent of Western Australia’s total budget.

ref: http://www.royaltiesforregions.wa.gov.au/ , regional grants scheme ,

Royalties For Regions Wheatbelt Regional Grants Scheme

St Vincent de Paul Society says increased costs of living has led to a record a 55 per cent increase in demand for help. The WA Council for Social Service says it needs funding to increase to $223 million each year to cope.

The big mining boom happening in WA has seen the state record the highest population growth in the country. On June 30, 2010, there were 2.3 million people calling WA home, an increase of 2.2 per cent in a year, compared to 1.7 per cent nationally. You can red more about the royalties for regions over here

The rise of the Australian Dollar (AUD)

2011-04-28T02:49:00.001-07:00

The aussie dollar reached parity against the US dollar in Nov 2010 and since then analysts have been predicting that it would only get better and possibly reach $1.10 against the USD. Well the AUD as of today is on the brink of breaking past that prediction , with it currently trading at $1.09 against the US dollar.

What the strong Australian dollar means to us Australians

Sectors to “Boom” with the Rise of the AUD :

Boom for Shoppers:
Import sectors like electronics and cars manufacturing will get cheaper and make them cheaper in coming months if retailers pass on savings.
Buying goods online from places like the US and UK will also become cheaper for consumers.
Cheap holidays for Travelers':
Overseas holidays will be less expensive, with more buying power for everything from hotels to shopping due to the aussie dollar getting more bang for your buck. Airlines pay for fuel in US dollars so fares should also get cheaper. This depends on whether airlines pass on savings to people or pocket it themselves.

RATES ON HOLD :
The higher Australian dollar may make the Reserve Bank a little less willing to raise rates, but then this again will be looked at in relation to many other factors as well before the decision is made by the RBA.
Importers bargain :
It will be cheaper for businesses that import their good from overseas as it will ge cheaper for them to source their goods. It depends on whether businesses will pass on the savings onto consumers or increase margins.

Sectors to “LOSE” with the rise of the AUD :

Exporters To lose profits:
Farmers and winemakers in australia will continue to struggle as their goods become more expensive for overseas buyers. In addition, australian companies that are based and operate overseas and want to send their profits back home will also lose out.
Manufacturers can lose :
The impact will depend on who the manufacturer is dealing with or which country it exports /imports its goods with . or then also where it sells its products. If this includes competition with imports and/or sales overseas then life will become harder depending on the dollar value ( or currency ) of that country .

Loss for Internal Tourism operators:
Fewer travelers will choose to come here as Australia becomes a relatively expensive destination other countries will have to shell out more money to get to Australia and shop in Australia. This will hurt all aspects of our tourism industry with a domino affect hitting tour operators, transport industry, hotels and shops related to tourism.
Education more expensive to overseas students:
Our billion dollar income that we get from overseas students will be dearly hit. Our higher education institutions will suffer as studying in Australia becomes more expensive relative to other Western countries like the US or UK whose currency is moving downwards and are quite competitive in this sector.

Check out this "FOREX TRADING SOFTWARE"

Happy Easter 2011

2011-04-24T20:03:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter to all our blog readers!

Happy Holidays !!

The New Australian Stock Watch website

2011-04-14T04:27:00.001-07:00

Yes, australianstockwatch.com has got a new look , but not a new website.

Thanks to blogger.com, now you can see our website ( www.australianstockwatch.com) in five different ways now , you got the mosaic mode , the flipcard view , the Snapshot , SIDEBAR and timeslide view which all are different and puts the design of the blog into a new design .

If you got a blogger blog your website is probably already available in these different modes , just add –> /view/snapshot after your url to view it in snapshot mode. More information is available on the Google blog over here

Demo of Australian Stock Watch on blogger view modes

The “FLIPCARD” view of Australian stock watch

Check it out here – Flipcard DEMO ASW

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The “SNAPSHOT” view of Australian stock watch

Check it out here – Snapshot DEMO ASW

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The “MOSIAC” view of Australian stock watch

Check it out here – MOSIAC DEMO ASW

For more information on “australian stock trading” , “australian Stock market” , “Australian Business News” , The “Australian Stock Exchange” don't forget to bookmark us. Always Fresh :)

www.australianstockwatch.com

The Australian Federal budget 20102

Australia’sworst stock market week ever and Greece problems2

Whats up Mr.Henry ?

Companies hitting 52 week high5

Currency markets says its getting riskier5

Insurance sector heats up in Australia with Kmart entering the fray

Google china , Stern Hu and a bad taste in your mouth1

The end of reporting season7

World trade falls by lowest 12 percent since economic crisis5

Is the laggard Anz Going to steal the march on the Big 3 Banks3

The penny stock magic formula – james connelly

2011-04-13T04:40:00.001-07:00

James Connelly was only a 19 Year Old fresh College Student When He made it rich and came across The Secret To Making a Fortune in the Stock Market.
James Eventually got the Nickname of , "The Penny Stock Prophet", He had a real Uncanny Ability to Pick the "Breakout" Penny Stocks only Just Days Before They Experienced Record Gains!

Connelly only started With Just An Initial Investment of $1000, and James Is Going To Show You How It's Possible To Reach Millionaire Status in only Just 38 Trades, Using His Secret Winning Stock Picking Strategy!

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Current Positions Available: 14 and diminishing

What you're about to read is the story of James Connelly, a fresh college dropout who managed to create a secret stock-picking strategy that can turn $1000, into $1 Million, all by investing in small-cap and micro-cap stocks, otherwise known as "Penny Stocks."

Proof Of Amazing Results James Connelly Has Achieved For His Members In a very Quick 30 Day Period.

45% Average Returns! All Trades made In Just 24 To 48 Hours.

All With Penny Or Micro-Cap Stocks! Get it now Click Here!

The concept of Penny Stock Prophet is really very simple. They send an email that tells you about recent picks, penny stock and their results. This includes the predicted best stocks for the stock market for today and also some great buy and sell pointers on stock exchanging.
Sell point (or Price) refers to the price point that you should sell the stock i.e. Sell at $3.00 and up. You would do exactly that. It will sure make trick for the users. This is the way to make a decision under those circumstances. Sell the stock immediately when it reaches $3, unless you want to take some additional risk.
The buy point refers to the highest price you are willing to pay to purchase the stock ( or share). For instance, if it’s the case that it tells you to purchase at $0.65 and below. That’s precisely what you would do. The lower the price you buy at, the better. Alternatively, if you are more of a risk taker an make more money , you may want to wait until it goes past that $3.00 and pray that it continues to increase and then sell when you’re satisfied.
The penny stock strategy is here to guide you , and if you follow the principles you will definitely find success. Stock trading may require access to Us stock markets.

Rents in Perth city

2011-04-10T00:32:00.001-07:00

searching House rentals in Perth city

searching for a rental place can be quite a tiresome and stressful activity.I have listed a few websites here that will help you get yourself a rental property as soon as possible, giving to you the various options available for people looking to rent a place

The one print addition ( newspaper ) that is quite popular to list renal houses is the “quokka newspaper” which is out every Thursday, make sue you get the print edition as the online site is not up to scratch. The west Australian is another newspaper but with not as many listings as the quokka.

Rentals in Perth - Search 1000's rental properties

Find your place in Perth
www.rent.com.au/Rental Perth - Places for rents near Perth WA

Rents Perth City

Rents can average anywhere from $350 to $450 in the Perth central cbd or nearby Northbridge and west Perth and north Perth.Off course this can again vary based on the condition and location and age of the house.

One of the local websites that you can browse to search cheap accommodation is gumtree -- http://perth.gumtree.com.au/f-Unit-House-Real-Estate-W0QQCatIdZ9296. This website is also popular for all other kind of second hand goods at reasonable prices

some other websites that you can search online for accommodation , rental houses or apartments / units are listed below

http://www.myhome.com.au/rent/wa/perth/

http://www.realestate.com.au/rent/in-perth+city,+wa/list-1

http://www.rent.com.au/

http://www.domain.com.au/real-estate/rent/wa/perth-region/perth-city/perth/

http://reiwa.com.au/Pages/Home.aspx

http://www.stayz.com.au/accommodation/wa/perth/perth-city

Car Rentals

if you are looking for car rentals in perth ,you will find many if you are getting off the airport or then you can get it from the yellow pages as well.

Car Rentals is a Western Australian owned and operated car rental / car hire service providing a range of current model people movers and cars for hire, from our conveniently located car rental office situated near the Airport, Perth, Western Australia.

Car rentals can be priced from $25 to $45 a day depending on he car on hire.

Chi – x The new big boy in town

2011-03-05T18:07:00.001-08:00

It could be soon “ BYE BYE ASX” as Chi X gets closer to starting its own exchange here in Australia.

Australia’s securities market regulator will tomorrow outline steps to open the country’s equity market to foreign competitors for the first time in its 150-year history. Australian Financial Services Minister Bill Shorten will sign off on the Australian Securities & Investments Commission’s licensing plans later today

From ASX To Chi-X Australian trading exchange

Chi-X Australia Pty, a unit of Chi-X Global, sought to begin operating as early last October before rescheduling the launch to the first quarter of this year. The operator, which applied for a license in 2008 and won “in principle” government approval last March to start a rival service, has said it can’t give a start date until ASIC’s licensing timeframe is published.The Nomura-owned aspirant will probably get the formal licence tick-off from Financial Services Minister Bill Shorten in April, subject to a succession of minor administrative hurdles, the main one being the Australian Securities and Investment Commission's market handbook, the Market Integrity Rules. Chi-X Europe is among Europe's largest equity exchanges, allowing participants to trade equities across major European markets at significantly lower costs and faster speeds than many of the markets of listing.

The licence application has been held up mainly by concerns about whether Australia could face something like the "Flash Crash" of May 6 in the US, where a lack of co-ordination between rival sharemarkets caused orders to cascade from market to market, pushing the Dow Jones Industrial Average down by more than 1000 points at one stage.

Merger between Australian Exchange and Singapore exchange

Introducing competition in Australia’s exchange market is a key pillar of plans by the Labor Government led by Prime Minister Julia Gillard to help turn the country into a global financial hub. The licensing of foreign competitors may help pave the way for approval of a A$7.6 billion ($7.67 billion) merger between ASX and Singapore Exchange Ltd., which is facing opposition from some lawmakers in Canberra.

A start date for competing exchanges was delayed last year by the transfer of new powers to ASIC and a general election that returned Labor as a minority government. ASIC said Chi-X planned to have a phased soft launch, meaning not all ASX participants would be connected to the new bourse when it started operations.

Chi-X, which is owned by Instinet, a subsidiary of Japanese broking giant Nomura, operates in Europe, Canada and parts of Asia. In almost every case, it has done a deal with one of the major international clearing and settlement operators. In Europe it uses EMCF, which is jointly owned by Fortis and Nasdaq, and in Asia it uses LCH Clearnet's EquityClear service. Put simply, it can use the one existing clearing and settlement facility if equal and efficient access occurs.

Singapore Exchange, which runs the city’s securities and derivatives market, offered to buy ASX on Oct. 25 in a cash and share deal then valued at A$8.4 billion, a 42 percent premium to ASX’s share price at the time. ASX shares this week fell to their lowest level since before the bid was announced as a computer glitch halted trading and cut turnover by more than A$2 billion from the daily average.

market update australia

2011-03-04T03:10:00.001-08:00

Weekly market roundup

The Australian share market has ended the week on a high note, driven by gains in the materials sector after a positive lead from Wall Street overshadowed geopolitical concerns in the Middle East.

Todays market update –Australia

- The dollar slips to $US1.0141

- Asian stocks rise on US optimism

- Gold hovers below $US1420 an ounce

- WTI oil extends gains towards $US103

- Dow futures edge 9 points higher to 12,248

2010 –Australian Financial Wrap Up (The year of Ipads , Rudd Exit , NBN wiki leaks , try again BHP and what not …

2011-01-25T16:50:00.001-08:00

2010 in the media: Wiki leaks, iPads and the NBN

Here is our “financial wrap up 2010” or “australian stock marketwrap up 2010” with and australian flavor. Emerging economies (in Asia and Latin America) significantly outperformed countries where the GFC had the most impact (the US, Japan and parts of Europe). BHP did it again, BHP Billiton Ltd put a $US45 billion bid for Canadian fertiliser company Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc and then withdrew it later.

The major 4 banks earned a lot of badwill from the government and its customers for increasing rates much higher than the official bank rates and then some ended up removing “Bank EXIT fees“ to get more competitive.

GOLD forecast

Historically ,January 21st, 1980 saw the price of gold reach 850 US dollars per ounce. To understand how much money this is worth today one would need to adjust the figures according to the CPI (Consumer Price Index). 850 dollars in 1980 is worth 2,250 US dollars in the year 2010. If gold were to repeat the value of a previous high it could double from the price it is trading at in June of 2010.

There are signs that reports of market confidence end in 2010, which pushed price of gold down begining of 2011, but during second quarter the real results will come out possibly pushing prices back up. Overall 2011 will be a wavy year to recovery.

DOOLGUNNA and west Africa were the golden hot spots for junior stocks in 2010. Sandfire Resources, which boasted a stock price that has soared by more than 7,000% in 2009 with its "Doolgunna" copper-gold discovery 150km north of Meekatharra in Western Australia continued to put paper money profit back to its investors .

This year was the year of the iPad. It’s hard to believe that Apple CEO Steven Jobs revealed it to the world just 11 months ago and that 7 million have been sold. The ipad and Iphone 4 has certainly become one of the more popular Gadgets in 2010. Here are some of the other news that rocked us in 2010.

Australian Wrap up 2010

Our own Aussie Scandals & cricket & footy

Bad boy Brendan Fevola gave us the shower scene with Lara Bingle, Stephanie Rice gave us “faggot-gate” and created a big uproar among her fans , the NRL’s Joel Monaghan gave us another definition for doggie style, Shane Warne joined the twitter bandwagon, while Facebook revealed more of the St Kilda football club than its players would like and the drama continues.

Qantas mishaps continue to remain in the news

Qantas remained in the news for the wrong reasons throughput 2010 with some mishaps and minor accidents

August 2010: Qantas flight forced to land in San Francisco after explosion in engine casing.

April 2010: Tires on Qantas A380 burst during landing at Sydney Airport.

Aprile 2010: Cracked windshield grounds Qantas plane in Melbourne.

Wiki leaks Revelations continue

Julian Assange Founder of wiki leaks kept springing up new shocking releases on his wiki leaks website making some of the major countries governments sweat under the collar.

Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese winner of the Nobel Peace Prize

Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, was denied the chance to collect it , as china urged many countries to stay away from the Nobel prize ceremony

The Kevin Speedy Rudd exit

2010 was also the year that Kevin Rudd’s Deputy Prime minister (Julia gillard –Now prime minister) swept the carpet from under him.There was the fantastic coverage by ABC TV of the spill that ended Kevin Rudd’s prime minister ship.

Tony abott and his budgie smugglers

Phew … will he be wearing budgie smugglers?..Tony abbot again made news with his budgie smugglers .read more here

The ken Henry review

The Henry tax review is finally out on 2nd May 2010 was not much of a surprise as not many of the recommendations got implemented.

It was also the year that a piece of media infrastructure won an election. The National Broadband Network (NBN) was the clincher for Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott. But what do we know about this behemoth? We know from the media it will cost either $42 billion, or $26 billion or $36 billion or $28 billion or perhaps less or perhaps more.

Everyones twittering and facebooking

Yup thats right you cant ignore it , you get in the bus its around you , you get on the train its around you , you sit in the office its around you , twitter and facebook has entered our lives to become an ongoing addiction and it possibly will stay there for some time. Its on Ipads , Iphones , Androids , tablets and you name it whatever new gadget that launches , not only all the aussie celebrities has got on the twitter bandwagon but so has the Australian media channels with a twitter channel for every new show nowadays.

It was the year we discovered the digital drop box and the cloud, we started retweeting in earnest and forgot our passwords too often. It was another year in the media.

Packer’s and Murdoch’s moves on Ten looks like an endorsement of free view, the burgeoning network of digital free-to-air channels owned by the existing networks.

Rupert Murdoch announced that he will charge people to read his news websites and that did not go down well with many in the online world as well as Google.

In fact 2010 was the year that analog TV signals started turning off as part of the national rollout of digital TV. Mildura went first in June, followed by locations in South Australia and New South Wales last week. Next year it’s more locations in regional Queensland and Victoria.

Property update 2010

Australia’s housing market changed direction in June 2010 according to rpdata.com research director Tim Lawless. Based on the RP Data-Rismark Home Value Indices, over the eighteen months to June 2010 the combined capital cities of Australia saw home values increase by 18.5 per cent after values fell by 3.8 per cent during 2008.

Coal prices set to climb higher due to Australian Floods and Africa heavy rains

2011-01-06T21:28:00.001-08:00

Coal Flooding Breaking News:
Australia is the world’s biggest coal exporter when supplies of coking coal to make steel and thermal coal to generate power are combined.The country shipped 259 million tons of material in 2009, according to data compiled on the World Coal Association’s website. It was followed by 230 million tons of exports from Indonesia. The group cited information from BP Plc, the International Energy Agency, the World Steel Association, Simpson Spence & Young and the World Energy Council. some of the bigger coal export markets are Japan, India, Chile, China, Australia, and Belgium.

Ref:http://www.abare.gov.au/interactive/09ac_sept/htm/steel.htm

South Africa Heavy rains impact exports

South Africa raised the flood-warning level for its central Orange River area today as water levels in places were expected to reach the highest since 1996. The country’s biggest dam, Gariepdam, is at 113 percent of “full” levels and the second- biggest, Vanderkloof, is 107 percent full, according to figures on the website of the government’s water department.
In 2009-10, export earnings from metallurgical coal are forecast to decline by 50 per cent to $18 billion, having increased by 128 per cent in 2008-09. The record prices that underpinned high export earnings in 2008-09 declined by between 57 and 62 per cent for JFY 2009. This price decline is forecast to more than offset a 4 per cent increase in export volumes.

Australia Flooding makes coal prices to surge

One of Queensland's largest coal terminals has stopped exports and the largest in the state is at just 60 per cent capacity, ripping nearly two million tonnes of coal a week from the global supply. About 40 mines in Queensland have been affected by flooding and several have said they cannot meet their contracts.
As the australian floods and devastation news in the eastern states flows into the world news all over , africa is adding to the woes of the coal importing nations. To add to the coal export worries in australia, now africa us having heavy rains impairing thier coal exports as well.
This chain of event can mean only one thing higher coal prices due to this shortage in coal in australia and africa which are one of teh bigger coal exporting countries. China and INDIA which have substantial coal imports from these countries will certainly be affected , even though china has its own coal producing mines. Three big coal miners BHP Billiton Ltd., Xstrata Plc and Anglo American Plc, already facing delays in coal shipments from flooding in Australia, said their South African operations are also being hit by unusually high rainfall.

Coal for delivery to Amsterdam, Rotterdam or Antwerp with settlement next year rose $2.85, or 2.4 percent, to $119.75 a metric ton at 12:28 p.m. in London. Prices rose as high as $120 earlier yesterday.

Floods (Disasters Up Close)
Biblical Collector's Series: Noah's Ark and the Biblical Flood
Import/Export For Dummies
Building an Import / Export Business

when the bidding war spills overseas – Riversdale mining

2010-12-26T18:34:00.001-08:00

Earlier on when the Rio Tinto offer was pitched ( for Riversdale mining) there were rumors of an Indian conglomerate also thinking of biding with sketchy details of who it was really that was doing the bidding in the news articles. Now it has emerged that TATA steel ( Indian Company )who is already a partner ( has 24 percent stake in riversdale mining) of Riversdale mining is also evaluating the deal that is on offer. Now when this sort of news is in the market Only two things can happen

1. The price of the share ( Riversdale Mining ) will go up and that can benefit Riversdale and its stake holders

2. Riversdale stake holders can reap a bigger price benefit due to this price surge

Will Riversdale price rise further , will the Rio Tinto takeover go through

If the Indian consortium decides to go ahead, it will have to up Rio Tinto's offer price of $16 per share for Mozambique-focused Riversdale.

Now this can be a good thing for Riversdale mining and its stake holders but possibly not for any bidders like Rio Tinto who possibly might be pressured into putting up a higher offer due to the price surge or then just news that is out that a rival is also “considering” an offer

Tata steel Takeover Document

Tata Steel : Investment in Riversdale Mining, Australia

Riversdale which is a Perth Western Australia based company has 13 billion tonnes in coking and thermal coal reserves in its Benga and Zambeze projects in the southern African country of Mozambique, will help the Indian companies secure coal supplies as currently there is a shortage in local production in india

Riversdale's major shareholders three investors owning about 51 per cent are shareholders, Tata Steel, Passport Capital LLC and Siderurgica Nacional SA. India’s Tata Steel holds a 24.2 percent stake as well as a 35 percent interest in Riversdale’s Benga project in Mozambique, where exports are scheduled to start next year

Earlier, International Coal Ventures ( Indian conglomerate)s aid it had hired Citibank to advise on a counter-bid to Rio Tinto's $16-a-share offer for Riversdale Mining.

"We have appointed Citibank. The merchant bank will submit its report in the next two weeks, based on which we will take a call on counter-bidding for Riversdale," chairman C.S. Verma said. ICVL is a joint venture between five state-run Indian companies -- Steel Authority of India ( also known as “SAIL” IN INDIA ), NTPC , NMDC, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam and Coal India.

commodities on the rise

2010-12-23T06:21:00.001-08:00

Copper - $US9355 a tonne

Copper prices stormed to record levels this week, closing yesterday at $US9355 a tonne. speculation is there that a trader has accumulated up to 90 per cent of the copper on the London Metal Exchange, amid a dramatic rise in the metal's price driven by demand from China and other emerging economies.

Oil - $US90 a barrel

Oil pushed through $US90 a barrel for the third time in two years, after the banking crisis raised fears of a slowdown in the world economy and a cut in demand for oil and other commodities.

On the sharemarket, the big miners performed well, Rio Tinto adding 42¢ to $87.20 and BHP Billiton up 65¢ at $46.47.

Shiny metals have also hit fresh highs recently. Silver has reached its highest price in 30 years while palladium has traded at prices last seen in 2001.

The spot price of gold was down $US2.28 an ounce at $US1387.20 at the close of Sydney trade

US MARKETS BREAKING NEWS :

US regulators seeking an overhaul of the $US583 trillion privately traded derivatives market want to throw open membership of clearinghouses. (More here…)

Metcash bid for franklins supermarket to be apposed by ACCC

2010-11-18T05:44:00.001-08:00

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today announced it will oppose the proposed acquisition of the Franklins supermarket business by Metcash Trading Limited.

Metcash is one of Australia's largest wholesaling and distribution company servicing independent grocery retailers throughout Australia, like IGA and Supa IGA and the supermarkets operating under his chain.

Franklins operates around 80 corporate owned and 8 franchised Franklins supermarkets in NSW, and is currently owned by “Pick n Pay” Retailers (Pty) Limited South Africa's largest retailer.

Quote the ACCC

"Central to the ACCC's concerns is that the proposed acquisition is likely to result in a substantial lessening of competition through the removal of Metcash's closest and only genuine competitor for the wholesale supply of packaged groceries in NSW," ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said today.

Franklins is a leading discount supermarket chain and Australia’s original discount grocer. It sells packaged groceries and perishables in metropolitan and rural areas throughout New South Wales. The current Franklins brand was established in 2001 after being purchased by South African retail giant, Pick n Pay.

Woolworths says it’s interested in buying several Franklins stores, but the owner of the small supermarket chain remains a barrier to a sale.

Statement of Issues
22^nd September 2010
MER10+2347.pdf (146.7 KB)

Related links:

Welcome to Franklins & Family Supermarkets - Franklins ...

Franklins is a leading discount supermarket chain and Australia's original discount grocer. It sells packaged groceries and perishables in metropolitan and ...
www.franklins.com.au/

Metcash Limited: Home

Metcash is a leading marketing and distribution company, operating in the grocery, liquor and hardware wholesale industries. ...
www.metcash.com/

AUD takes over the USD

2010-11-01T05:03:00.001-07:00

it was to happen and soon we will see the Australian dollar grow even further as the US markets start to look to more stable markets to invest their money. The Australian dollar overtook the US dollar today with 1USD giving 1.01173 AUD

Here is a snapshot from www.xe.com

The Australian dollar not only reached parity , but overtook the USD in value today.