Retail sales disappoint as job ads continue to slide: Midday Roundup

Retail sales in Australia were unchanged in October, despite expectations of a rise, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The data showed retail spending was a seasonally adjusted $21.563 billion in the month.

Analysts had expected a 0.4% rise in retail spending.

Linc Energy signs South African deal

Linc Energy has signed a deal with Exxaro Resources to develop projects in Southern Africa.

Under the deal, Exxaro will pay Linc Energy $3 million within 30 days and then further instalments of an upfront licence fee will be made following completion of all contractual documentation and then at project commissioning.

Linc Energy has a minimum 15% equity in the first project with an option to increase that to 49%.
Linc Energy chief Peter Bond said the deal was a demonstration of Linc Energy’s world-class capabilities in the clean energy space.

“Exxaro is the second largest coal producer in Africa, with an annual production of 47 million tonnes and a stated objective to more than double its business by 2020,” Bond said.

Job advertising falls a further 2.9%

The number of job advertisements on the internet and in newspapers fell 2.9% in November, following a decline of 4.6% in October, according to ANZ.

This was the eighth consecutive monthly decline and represents the lowest number of job ads since January 2010.

ANZ head of Australian economics and property research Ivan Colhoun said the weakness in job advertisements across the mining states of Western Australia and Queensland has been particularly concerning and reflects a much slower pace of mining-related hiring over the past six months.

“Over this period, job advertisements in Western Australia have fallen, on average by 6% each month and in Queensland the average monthly decline has been around 4%,” he said.

Stock market opens flat

The Australian stock market opened little changed after a rise in commodity prices and Chinese manufacturing primary manufacturing index hitting a seven-month high last week.

At the official market open, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index rose 0.21% to 4515.6 points, while the broader All Ordinaries Index inched up 0.19% to 4526.6 points.