Elsewhere in the region now. Japan's Nikkei is up 31 points, the Hengseng is up 16, and the Australian dollar is currently buying 82.6 US cents.  

 

 

Figures out from the Bureau of Statistics show that housing finance dropped in the month of November, with the number of home loans granted falling by 0.7 of the percent. Economists have been expecting a rise of 1.7 percent. Total housing finance by value slipped one percent to 29 billion dollars. Investment in housing that drove that result, it fell 2.2 percent. 

 

 

And the number of advertised job vacancies continues to rise, but it's still enough to bring down Australia's unemployment rate. Research by ANS Bank shows the number of job backs rose by 1.8 percent in December. It was the seventh consecutively monthly rise, but unemployment is still twenty up. The jobless rate rose to 6.3 in the most recent official figures for November.