The Australian share market or S&P/ASX 200 (INDEXASX: XJO)(ASX: XJO) index is expected to open higher Wednesday morning, according to data from the Sydney Futures Exchange.
Here’s the key headline data:
SFE ASX 200 futures: +24 points
Australian Dollar ($A) (AUDUSD): 77.70 US cents
Dow Jones (DJI): up 0.9%
Oil (WTI): $US66.61 per barrel
Gold: $US1,350 per ounce
Overnight, London-listed shares of BHP Billiton Limited (ASX: BHP) and Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) finished 0.9% and 1.2% higher, respectively, according to Yahoo! Finance.
Australian Investing News
Making news in Australia and on the ASX, iron ore and aluminium mining giant Rio Tinto released its first-quarter production results today. For the first three months of its 2018 financial year, Rio Tinto produced 83.1 million tonnes of iron ore, 12.6 million tonnes of bauxite and 139,300 kilotonnes of copper, up 8%, 12% and 65%, respectively (compared to the same period in 2017).
“We delivered a solid operational performance across most commodities in the first quarter of 2018,” Rio Tinto CEO J-S Jacques said. “Our world-class Pilbara iron ore assets continue to demonstrate flexibility and the benefits of increased productivity, and production at our bauxite and copper assets was also higher.”
Lithium miner Orocobre Ltd (ASX: ORE) provided an update on its Cauchari joint venture, revealing that the size of the resource expected to be estimated in May.
Temple & Webster Group Ltd (ASX: TPW), the furniture retailer, provided a quarterly cash flow report to the ASX showing a 23% increase in quarterly revenue.
Technology company Empired Ltd (ASX: EPD) announced an on-market share buyback of up to 15.2 million shares. Empired said it, “considers an on-market share buy-back to be an effective method of returning capital to shareholders where Empired’s shares are trading at a significant discount to the intrinsic value of the Company.”
UK-based banking group, CYBG PLC (ASX: CYB), announced an increase to its provisions for costs associated with payment protection insurance (PPI) sold to customers around the time of the global financial crisis.
CYBG announced that it expects to increase the legacy costs for PPI claims by £350 million. National Australia Bank Ltd. (ASX: NAB), the previous owner of CYBG, will fund £148 million of the provision, according to its agreement, with the remainder funded by CYBG.
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