News

Western Australia’s automotive industry has finished the year down 2.5per cent in new vehicle sales relative to last year, after a drop in sales for December ended a two-month run of strong growth.

Australian shares have ended slightly higher with strong performances in the healthcare and energy sectors helping offset a weak session for the big miners and banks.

Medicinal cannabis producers have welcomed the Australian government's decision to approve exports of their products.

Local engineering and construction group Valmec has announced it will purchase Henderson-based specialist pipeline testing company APTS, which was recently put into receivership.

Australian shares have opened comfortably higher mimicking Wall Street where technology stocks drove the S&P500 above 2,700 for the first time.

Yowie chairman vows sweeter times ahead

Oil prices have risen nearly 2 per cent to their highest in two-and-a-half years, with buying spurred on by a sixth day of unrest in OPEC member Iran and strong economic data from the United States and Germany.

The Australian dollar is rebounded against a rallying US dollar, supported by strong iron ore prices.

Gold prices have fallen, extending losses after the Federal Reserve released minutes of its December policy meeting, which fed the view among investors that more US interest rate rises are in store.

Subiaco-based Blaze International has announced that it will acquire mining company Everest Minerals via the issue of 48,500,000 million shares to Everest shareholders.

Australian shares have closed higher as surging iron ore and coking coal prices helped lift energy and mining sectors.

Regional Express has been selected by the state government as the preferred airline for the Perth-Carnarvon-Monkey Mia air route while Skippers Aviation was nominated to remain in operation at the Perth-Northern Goldfields routes.

A new Perth-based cryptocurrency exchange is aiming to be in operation in the first quarter of 2018 after the company recently raised $750,000 in private funding.

Perth-based technology company DTI Group has won a $US7.2 million ($9.5 million) contract to install CCTV surveillance systems on light rail vehicles in the US over the next 18 months.

Western Australian indigenous business Carey Training has been awarded a $2.5 million training contract with the Malaysian Institute of Technology Academy based in Kuala Lumpur for the next three years.

The City of Fremantle has shortlisted six companies for the building contract for the civic building and library as part of the $270 million Kings Square redevelopment, while also announcing the demolition contractor for the council’s old administration building.

Mining contractor Resource Development Group has been awarded a concrete and civil works contract worth more than $9 million at Mineral Resources’ Wodgina lithium project in the Pilbara.

Yowie shares have slumped to a near-five-year low after the confectionery maker slashed its full-year sales guidance and replaced its chief executive.

The Australian share market has opened marginally higher on the back of a positive lead from Wall Street where two of the three stock indexes hit record closing highs on its first trading day for 2018.

Blackham secures two-week reprieve

Gold has extended its rally into the new year, touching late September highs on a softer US dollar, while spot palladium jumped to a record on fears of short supplies after soaring 57 per cent in 2017.

Oil prices have hit mid-2015 highs early on their first trading session for 2018, before dipping to settle slightly lower as major pipelines in Libya and the UK restart and US production soared to the highest level in more than four decades.

The Australian dollar is slightly lower against its US counterpart, which has fallen to a three-month low in its first trading session for 2018, but has plunged against the yen and the euro.

Perth-based TNG has commissioned Carnegie Clean Energy's subsidiary Energy Made Clean to evaluate renewable energy options to power its Mount Peake vanadium titanium project.

Southern Cross Electrical Engineering has been awarded a number of new commercial and public infrastructure contracts across Australia totalling more than $90 million, including $66 million of work at a new section of the Westmead Hospital in New South Wales.

The share market has posted its first fall for the week as selling in the financial and property sectors outweighed gains by energy producers, miners and retailers.

Shares in Sky and Space Global have soared after announcing it had secured a $US30 million ($40 million) contract for a Nigerian company to use its nanosatellite technology for the next five years.

The state government has today approved Sinosteel Midwest Corporation’s iron ore expansion project east of Geraldton, while simultaneously rejecting Mineral Resource’s planned iron ore mines in the Helena-Aurora Range, after the environmental watchdog had recommended both should be blocked.

Alister Yiap has explored a number of business models to find the best way to move his jewellery-meets-art into the hands of his admiring customers.

Sydney-based oil and gas company AWE has backed a revised $526 million takeover offer from Mineral Resources as the Perth-based mining outfit seeks to gain control of the Waitsia gas field in the Perth Basin.

Australian shares have lost ground in early trade after a strong run so far this week, as investors take cues from a choppy session on Wall Street overnight.

WA taxpayers left with bill as Rayney wins record payout for defamation