Vocation shares enter trading halt; Mortgage broker under fire for using ASIC trademark: Midday Roundup

Shares in Vocation have been placed in a trading halt, amidst a review of the troubled higher education provider’s finances.

Vocation requested trading in its shares be suspended earlier this morning, informing the Australian Securities Exchange of a forthcoming company announcement.

The trading halt is expected to continue until the opening of trade on Thursday or when the announcement is made.

It is the latest blow to the training provider, after former federal education minister John Dawkins resigned as chairman in late November.

Director Doug Halley stepped in as chairman following Hawkins’ resignation, which followed the launch of a number of class actions against Vocation and the company forfeiting $19.6 million in government funding.

Mortgage broker under fire for using ASIC trademark

Mortgage House has dropped the name MoneySmart for one of their loan products after being slammed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, which has the name registered for one of its websites.

The non-bank lender admits they did not check if ‘MoneySmart’ was trademarked and has now begun corrective advertising on its website.

Mortgage House has assured the corporate regulator that it will rectify its advertising compliance processes.

ASIC claims that using its registered name could mislead borrowers to believe the company was in some way endorsed or approved by the government agency or its MoneySmart site.

Aussie shares up after turbulent Monday

Local shares are up this morning after the market was shaken yesterday by a turbulent start to the week, which saw the worst day of trade in eight weeks.

“Strong rallies in metals and energy could see the Australian share market reverse some of yesterday’s losses despite pressure on global stocks,” said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets.

“Strong US manufacturing data overnight lifted the outlook for industrial commodities, although trading may be cautious ahead of local building approvals numbers and the last RBA meeting until February 2015.”

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark was up 42.5 points to 5250.2 at 12:11pm AEDT. On Monday, the Dow Jones closed 51.44 points down, dipping 0.29% to 17,776.8 points.

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