The Australian share market or S&P/ASX 200 (INDEXASX: XJO)(ASX: XJO) index is expected to open nearly as flat as a pancake Thursday morning, according to data from the Sydney Futures Exchange, with Commonwealth Bank Of Australia (ASX: CBA) and National Australia Bank Ltd. (ASX: NAB) in the news.
Here’s the key headline data:
SFE ASX 200 futures: +4 points
Australian Dollar ($A) (AUDUSD): 74.91 US cents
Dow Jones (DJI): down 0.7%
Oil (WTI): $US67.73 per barrel
Gold: $US1,306 per ounce
Overnight, London-listed shares of BHP Billiton Limited (ASX: BHP) and Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) finished up 2.8% and up 2.9%, respectively, according to Yahoo! Finance.
Australian Investing News
Making news in Australia, National Australia Bank Ltd reported its half-year results to the market this morning revealing an 11% increase in revenue to $9.6 billion and a 1.5% improvement in profit. NAB will also pay shareholders a dividend of 99 cents per share, fully franked (click here to watch a video explaining franking).
“We have delivered a solid 1H18 result as we manage NAB for today while transforming for the future,” CEO Andrew Thorburn said.
Also making the news, Commonwealth Bank of Australia confirmed that there was no evidence its customers’ information was compromised in 2016 following some suspicious activity. KPMG was hired by CBA to investigate the movement of magnetic tapes which contained customers’ historical statements.
“The 2016 incident was not cyber-related and there has been no compromise of CBA’s technology platforms, systems, services, apps or websites,” the bank said in its statement.
Finally, software business Citadel Group (ASX: CGL) provided an update on some of its customer contracts which it said reflected “continued momentum” in its software-as-a-service (SaaS) business.
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