Australia Stocks: Commonwealth, Mt. Gibson, Newcrest, Woodside

By Shani Raja

Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The S&P/ASX 200 Index dropped 34.50 points, or 0.8 percent, to 4,353.60 at 10:20 a.m. in Sydney, the lowest since July 21, 2005. The broader All Ordinaries Index lost 41.20 points, or 0.9 percent, to 4,328.60, while the futures index expiring in December advanced 0.3 percent to 4,361.

Gold mining companies: Newcrest Mining Ltd. (NCM AU), Australia's largest gold producer, leapt A$2.95, or 13 percent, to A$26.15, the benchmark's best performer. Lihir Gold Ltd., (LGL AU) rallied 27 cents, or 11 percent, to A$2.63, the second-best performer.

Gold futures for December delivery jumped 2.8 percent to $906.50 in New York on speculation that moves by central banks to ease the global credit crunch won't revive financial markets, boosting demand for the precious metal as a haven.

Financial stocks: National Australia Bank Ltd. (NAB AU), the nation's largest lender, declined 75 cents, or 3.1 percent, to A$23.60, the lowest since Sept. 19. Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. (ANZ AU) dropped 31 cents, or 1.8 percent, to A$16.69.

U.S. stocks fell for a sixth day after Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said more banks may fail and unprecedented global interest-rate cuts failed to convince investors the economy will avoid a recession.



Oil companies: Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (WPL AU), operator of Australia's North West Shelf liquefied natural gas venture, fell 91 cents, or 2.1 percent, to A$43.29, the lowest since Jan. 22. Santos Ltd. (STO AU) dropped 32 cents, or 2.1 percent, to A$14.99.

Crude oil for November delivery fell 1.2 percent to $88.95 a barrel at 2:54 p.m. in New York as the U.S. government reported a bigger-than-expected gain in crude and gasoline inventories and the global economic crisis curbed demand.

CFS Retail Property Trust (CFX AU) declined 1 cents, or 4.6 percent, to A$2.29, the most since June 30. The Australian shopping-center owner completed a A$300 capital raising, the proceeds of which will be used to strengthen the company's balance sheet, the Australian newspaper reported, citing Colonial's head of listed property.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA AU), the nation's biggest provider of mortgages, tumbled A$4.85, or 11 percent, to A$40.30, a record loss. The lender said it raised A$2 billion ($1.34 billion) to fund its purchase of HBOS Plc.'s Australian units by selling shares at A$38 apiece, a 15.8 percent discount to its last traded share price.

Mt. Gibson Iron Ltd. (MGX AU) dived 27 cents, or 23 percent, to 89 cents, the most in more than six years. Chinese steelmakers are reducing demand for iron ore and asking to postpone contracted deliveries because of tightening credit facilities, the Australian iron-ore producer said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Shani Raja in Sydney at sraja4@bloomberg.net.