Australia shares seen opening flat, eyeing China demand

Sun Feb 17, 2013 5:38pm EST

SYDNEY, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Australian shares are seen starting with a flat tone on Monday as blue chips Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Telstra Corp Ltd trade ex-dividend, while miners are likely to climb as top buyer China returns from holiday.          * Local share price index futures rose 0.3 percent to 5,008, a 25.9 point discount to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index close. The benchmark edged down 3 points to 5,033.9 on Friday, but rose 1.3 percent for the week to extend the market's bull-run to a fifth week.       * New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index rose 0.3 percent to 4,208.0 in early trade.     * The S&P 500 dipped on Friday as Wal-Mart dropped following a report of a weak start to February sales, and the index just barely extended its streak of weekly gains to seven.      * Copper dipped as the dollar rose, outperformed again by aluminium and zinc, but investors hoped a surge of buying will emerge when Chinese participants return from holiday this week.      * Australian packaging group Amcor Ltd reported a better-than-expected 5.7 percent rise in first-half underlying profit, buoyed by its Aperio food packaging acquisition last year and despite battling currency headwinds.      * Both Commonwealth Bank of Australia and telecommunication giant Telstra Corp Ltd will be trading ex-dividend on Monday.  ----------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT @ 2206 GMT ------------                     INSTRUMENT   LAST       PCT CHG   NET CHG S&P 500                   1519.79      -0.1%    -1.590 USD/JPY                   93.82        0.36%     0.340 10-YR US TSY YLD     2.0052          --     0.000 SPOT GOLD                 1609.19      0.00%     0.000 US CRUDE                  96.04       -1.31%    -1.270 DOW JONES                 13981.76     0.06%      8.37 ASIA ADRS                136.35      -0.34%     -0.46 -------------------------------------------------------------                                                                              * Wall St ends slightly down, S&P positive for 7th week     * Oil sinks, Brent headed for first wkly loss since Jan    * Gold drops over 3.7 pct in week on technical selling    * Copper falls, aluminium up as market awaits Chinese           For a digest of the day's business stories in Australian  newspapers, double click on       (Reporting by Maggie Lu Yueyang; Editing by John Mair)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/hotStocksNews/~3/4bSDLd30DRM/markets-australia-stocks-idUSL4N0BH15L20130217

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