The Sydney Futures Exchange is pointing to a small rise for the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) when it opens this morning, despite a mostly down night for international markets.
Here's a quick recap:
- FTSE 100 (UK): up 0.47%
- DAX (Germany): down 0.27%
- CAC 40 (France): down 0.01%
- Dow Jones (USA): down 0.03%
- NASDAQ (USA): down 0.11%
Gold prices continued to rise yesterday, lifting another 0.6% to around US$1,216 an ounce. That could help miners such as EVOLUTION FPO (ASX: EVN) and St Barbara Ltd (ASX: SBM).
Meanwhile, the Australian dollar continued to rally against the US greenback, with $1 now purchasing US76.69 cents.
James Hardie Industries plc (ASX: JHX) will be in the news today after it reported a 10% lift in revenue for the nine months ended 31 December, together with an 8% rise in net profit.
Domino's Pizza Enterprises Ltd. (ASX: DMP) and Vocus Group Ltd (ASX: VOC) could also receive some attention. The pair rose strongly on Thursday, with both shares up around 5%.
The same can also be said for Downer EDI Limited (ASX: DOW). The shares soared more than 13% on Thursday to end the session at $7.07. However, they also hit a 52-week high of $7.46 during the day which, at the time, represented a gain of 19.4%.
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