Qantas on track to cut jobs: Midday roundup

There are fears up to 1,250 Qantas engineers will be axed when the airline makes a restructuring announcement due this week.

Timing of the announcement was ”on track” for the middle of this month, a Qantas spokesman confirmed.

Qantas expects to save between $70 million and $100 million a year through rationalising its three heavy maintenance bases and introducing streamlined maintenance practices.

The aircraft maintenance engineers’ union has called on the aviation safety regulator to intervene immediately over the aircraft maintenance changes Qantas intends to make.

Australian dollar close to parity

The Australian dollar has fallen closer to parity with the US dollar as political turmoil continues in Greece.

This morning the Australian dollar was trading at 100.29 US cents, down from 100.27 US cents on Friday.

Concerns about the implications of Greece’s political instability appears to have overshadowed positive news out of China where China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, has announced it would cut the ratio of capital reserves required to be held by financial institutions within the country, to stimulate the economy.

Home loan demand on the rise

The demand for home loans rose in March according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

ABS data showed the number of home loans granted in March rose a seasonally adjusted 0.3% to 46,275.

Analysts were expecting the figures to show loans had fallen by 2% in the month.

Total housing finance by value fell by 0.5%, seasonally adjusted, to $20.184 billion.

Australian stocks open slightly higher

Australian stocks opened slightly higher following the move by the Chinese government to ease banking requirements.

At the official market open, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index inched 0.1% higher to 4,291.2 points and the broader All Ordinaries Index rose 0.14% to 4,348.8 points.

Unlike the dollar, Australian stocks appear to have reacted more favourably to China’s central bank’s announcement that it would cut the ratio of capital reserves required to be held by financial institutions within the country, to stimulate the economy.