Isra-Mart srl:Australian Index Drops 1.6% to 2-year Low; Rio Tinto Plans Palabora Sale

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The Australian benchmark declined 1.6% and traded near 2-year low. The market indexes in Asia dropped for the second day on the euro-zone debt worries and uneven economic recovery in the U.S. Gold gained 2%.
The ASX 200 index fell 66.40 or 1.6% to 4,075.5 and All Ordinaries index fell 63.5 or 1.5% to 4,160.7.

The Australian dollar closed up 0.03% to US$1.0552 and gold price increased $32.25 to US$1,920.44.

In trading, turnover increased to 2.06 billion shares and the trading value declined to $5.11 billion with 262 stocks gained, 777 declined and 306 were unchanged.

Australia’s current account deficit declined to $7.42 billion in the second quarter from the upwardly revised $11.12 billion deficit in the first quarter. The previous estimate of the first quarter deficit was $10.45 billion, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The net foreign debt of the nation was unchanged at $675 billion according to the statistics office.

In a separate report, the ABS said the number of loans approved for home financing increased 1% in July after adjusting for seasonality from June. The investment housing loan amount increased 1.9% in the month.

The home loans new homes declined 0.8% and for the existing home purchase increased 1.3%.

Last week the agency also said that the new building approvals data showed a decline of 15% in the year to July.

Stock Movers

BHP Billiton Ltd decreased 82 cents to $36.88 and Rio Tinto declined $1.38 to $68.41. Newcrest Mining Ltd added 58 cents to $40.07.

Rio Tinto said it plans to sell its 57.7% stake in the South Africa based copper miner Palabora Mining and added that the company does not fit in its long term strategy.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia decreased 41 cents to $45.98 and National Australian Bank fell 63 cents to $22.41. ANZ declined 15 cents to $19.26.

Woodside Petroleum decreased 9 cents to $33.76 and Santos fell 32 cents to $11.08. Oil Search decreased 16 cents to $5.86.

Telstra increased 4 cents to $3.03 a day after the competition regulators disagreed with the company plan approved by the government to separate its wholesale and consumer businesses.

Transfield Services declined 2% to $2.26 after it won $133 million contract to build the national broadband network.

Seven West Media dropped 16 cents to $3.02 after it turned ex-dividend.