The Australian share market or S&P/ASX 200
(INDEXASX: XJO)(ASX: XJO) index is set for a positive open Thursday morning, according to data from Sydney Futures Exchange, with AMP Limited
(ASX: AMP) in the news.
Here’s the key headline data:
Australian Dollar ($A) (AUDUSD): 75 US cents
Dow Jones (DJI): up 0.7%
Oil (WTI): $US71.28 per barrel
Gold: $US1,312 per ounce
Overnight, London-listed shares of BHP Billiton Limited (ASX: BHP) and Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) finished 3.5% and 2.6% higher, respectively, according to Yahoo! Finance.
Australian Investing News
Making news in Australia, embattled financial advisory business AMP Limited
has announced it will defend a class action in the wake of the Royal Commission‘s probing of its culture and the quality of its advice.
AMP was one of the targets of the Commission’s probing of dodgy advice called ‘fee for no service’. Needless to say, many skeletons fell out of the darkest closets of AMP and the likes of Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA).
This morning, AMP said it will defend two class actions from disgruntled shareholders. It also provided a quarterly trading update revealing a 2% decline in assets in its local wealth management division and said the review into employee conduct is ongoing.
“We recognise there is a lot to be done to restore the public’s confidence in the company, which is a priority for the Board,” interim Chairman Mike Wilkins said.
Also in the news, accounting software business Xero Limited (ASX: XRO) announced its financial results for the year to 31 March 2018 showing a 38% increase in revenue and a net loss of $NZ27.8 million. Xero had 1.4 million software subscribers and reported $41 million of operating cash flow.
“Xero has delivered another impressive full-year result driven by subscriber and revenue growth with excellent operating discipline, reflecting the strength of our value proposition and business model,” Xero CEO Steve Vamos said.
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