Leighton Holdings

Announcement of asset write-down drops the share price of Australia’s largest project development and contracting group, Leighton Holdings (LEI). This announcement sends the Australian market an alarming message that the crisis situation which prevailed last year will continue even this year. The share price of the company has gone down by 10% in spite of the company’s powerful management team and strong balance sheet.

Centro Properties (CPN) was the overall best performing stock taking in a 42.10 percent increase. Among the best performing stocks for the week 14 of 2008 on the Australian sharemarket were a mixture of retail, learning services, project development, iron exploration, and property management: Centro Properties (CNP), ABC Learning (ABS), Leighton Holdings (LEI), Sundance Resources (SDL), APN UKA European Retail Property (AEZ). The best performing stocks for the week 14 managed gains above 17.13 percent by the end of the trading week.

Leighton Holdings (LEI) was the best performing stock trading on the Australian sharemarket's ASX 100 index this week (Winner of the week for week 40 of 2007). The contractor saw its shares rise from the construction boom by 8 percent or $4.15 in value closing at $55.65. The Australian dollar closed the week at US88.90 cents, gold at 736.35, All Ordinaries at 6617.3 and ASX 200 at 6605.4.

Arrow Energy (AOE) was the overall best performing stock taking in a 10.11 percent increase. Among the best performing companies for the past week (week 31 of 2007) on the Australian sharemarket were a mixture of project development, support services, energy and metal: Arrow Energy (AOE), Leighton Holdings (LEI), Brambles (BXB), Macquarie Airports (MAP). All the above best performing stocks for week 31 managed more than 2.85 percent gain by the end of the trading week.

It was the mixture of project development, boardsport manufacturing, developers and operators of toll roads, hardwood forest products, power generation and mining companies who were among the best performing stocks for the week 40 of 2007 on the Australian sharemarket: Leighton Holdings (LEI), Billabong International (BBG), Macquarie Infrastructure (MIG), Gunns (GNS), Babcock & Brown Power (BBP), Straits Resources (SRL). These best performing stocks managed gains over 5.76 percent by the end of the trading week.

Besides other fantastic performers like Fortesque and Auspine, other performing stocks for week 19 of 2007 were: on the ASX100 index there was Leighton Holdings (LEI) closing at $41.63 gaining $3.73 or 9.842 percent. Macquarie Bank (MBL) closed the week at $97.10, gaining $8.20 or 9.2 percent. Finally on the ASX 100 index there was Babcock & Brown closing at $32.09, gaining $2.69 in stock value or 9.15 percent. On the ASX200 index there was Tower (TWR) gaining some 14.815 percent or 28 cents closing the week at $2.17. The All Ordinaries index closed at 6319.7 and the ASX200 index closed at 6312.5.