Futures contracts for the S&P/ASX 200 (INDEXASX: XJO)(ASX: XJO) index are pointing to a slightly negative open on Friday morning with Sandfire Resources NL (ASX: SFR) and Spark New Zealand Ltd (ASX: SPK) in the news.
Here’s the key headline data:
Australian Dollar ($A) (AUDUSD): 75.78 US cents
Dow Jones (DJI): down 0.3%
Oil (WTI): $US70.75 per barrel
Gold: $US1,304 per ounce
Overnight, London-listed shares of BHP Billiton Limited (ASX: BHP) and Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) finished 1.7% and 0.8% lower, respectively, according to Yahoo! Finance.
Australian Investing News
Making news in Australia, copper and gold company Sandfire Resources NL (ASX: SFR) provided an exploration update on its Morck’s Well Project in Western Australia. Sandfire said surveying at the project did not produce a conductive response.
Kiwi telecommunications business Spark New Zealand Limited (ASX: SPK) provided a trading update saying it will accelerate its Quantum performance improvement programme to generate financial benefits sooner than expected.
However, Spark said added implementation costs of between $25 million and $30 million will be incurred in its 2018 financial year, bringing the total costs to between $50 million and $55 million.
Spark said it plans to pay partially franked dividends of 25 cents per share over the full year, but the additional costs will result in a lower profit. On an EBITDA basis (click here to learn what EBITDA means), Spark expects to report a 2.5% to 0.5% decline in profit.
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