WA Deloitte Index climbs 11% in March

Wesfarmers and Woodside Petroleum have continued to lead the rebound in value of Western Australian listed companies, delivering a combined increase in capitalisation of more than $5 billion during March.

The increase helped the Deloitte WA Index climb from $82.4 billion to $91.6 billion during the month, an increase of 11 per cent. The increase follows a $9.5 billion increase for the index in February, and takes the total growth during the past two months to 25 per cent.

Deloitte Perth office managing partner Keith Jones said all major world indices had experienced positive growth in March.

"The Deloitte WA Index has grown strongly in March, driven by increases in both the engineering and construction, and mining sectors," Mr Jones said.

"We have now seen two months of double digit growth in the WA Index, which has easily outstripped increases over that period in the major world and Australian indices," Mr Jones said.

Wesfarmers increased in capitalisation by $3.5 billion or 22.9 per cent during March, following a series of announcements including the 30 per cent acquisition of tenements in the Scadden energy project near Esperance.

Woodside Petroleum's market capitalisation increased by $1.6 billion this month as oil prices climbed by more than 10 per cent.

Movers and shakers during March within the Deloitte WA Index included Herald Resources, Extract Resources and Carbon Energy, with the market capitalisation of each company increasing by 133.3 per cent, 100.3 per cent and 100 per cent respectively.

All major world indices increased in March. The Nikkei and All Ordinaries increased by 7.15 per cent and 7.14 per cent respectively, followed by the US S&P 500 which increased by 4.61 per cent. The FTSE 100 increased by only 0.89 per cent.

Commodities recorded mixed movements during the month. Increases were recorded by lead (21.3 per cent), zinc (17.1 per cent), copper (17.0 per cent), palladium (10.2 per cent) and oil (10.9 per cent), while the price of uranium dropped 9.6 per cent. Other commodities remained comparable to last month.