Australian market falls again

Press, 5 March 1982, Page 10

Australian market falls again

Oil and gold stocks took a hammering on the Australian sharemarket yesterday as the resource sector crumbled under the joint pressure of falling world oil prices and tumbling bullion values. As O.P.E.C. looked set for an emergency price-setting meeting after Britain announced its second oil price drop in a month, local traders stripped 27.8 points from the beleaguered oil and gas sector. The index closed at 400.7 and has lost 285.1 points in 1982 despite encouraging hydrocarbon shows and several substation oil and gas flows from wells across the country. At the close of- trade, the over-all market measure, the

all-ordinaries index, was down 7.9 points to yet another new low of 472.7. The South Australian energy group, Santos, underlined the plight of the market with a 30c loss to 420 c. Santos this ,week announced a 108 per cent rise in annual profit to 520.5 M and' yesterday reported a flow of 2175 barrels of oil a day from the Cooper Basin well, Dullingari No. 22, in which it holds a 50 per cent interest. Market analysts said a similar flow and buoyant profit result before Christmas would have resulted in a 100 c rise in Santos’ share price, but traders have shunned the news in today’s bearish market.