Australian Investment Blog

Macquarie illustrates the current strength in the Australian stock market

Yesterday, Macquarie Group (MQG) announced they had completed a $500m capital raising at an extremely impressive $73.50 (only a 2c discount to the previous day’s close). The appetite for stock was rumoured to be so high that the placement was closed 2 hours early. Compare this MQG transaction to the discounts investors demanded to purchase stock when optimism was a distant memory:

• Commonwealth Bank (CBA) 2008 – raised $1.65bn @ $26 a 12% discount to the previous close.• MQG 2009 – raised $540m @ $27 a share, a 22% discount to the previous close.• Woodside (WPL) 2009 – raised $2.5bn @ $42.10 a share, a 9.4% discount to the previous close.