Welcome to Thursday. Here are the five things I'm looking at today on the Australian sharemarket.
- The S&P/ ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) has surged 0.7% higher to 5,672.2 on the back of decent gains on Wall Street overnight. The Dow Jones gained 0.4%, while the broader S&P 500 added 0.3%. The US Fed says it intends to keep the benchmark interest rate low for a 'considerable period of time', making stocks attractive. It's a similar position the RBA is taking locally, with analysts expecting low rates to continue well into 2015.
- Diversified financial services business AMP Limited (ASX: AMP) has seen its shares rise by more than 3% after the company posted a 16% rise in first half underlying net profit. AMP boosted its interim dividend by 9% to 12.5 cents per share, partially franked to 70%. But the company appears to be suffering from a back lash against financial planners, which is not a good sign, given how dependent AMP is on wealth management.
- ASX Limited (ASX: ASX) the operator of the Australian Stock Exchange has reported a 10% increase in net profit to $383.2 million, with all divisions showing increases in revenue. ASX also increased its dividend 9.2% to 89.9 cents, fully franked. That equates to a yield of 4.8%, at the current price of around $36.89.
- Tweet of the day
Plethora of earnings today, and from first blush the results across the 19 reports looked mixed. Ones to watch AMP ORG IIN TWE & PNA #ausbiz
Evan Lucas (@EvanLucas_IG) August 20, 2014
Yep, busy day of annual and interim reports coming out today. - Stock of the day is brought to you by Tom Richardson – Trade Me Group Ltd (ASX: TME). Tom says the company, which is New Zealand's largest online marketplace, expects to forecast low double-digit growth next year and has strong competitive advantages.
