Quiet night on Wall Street
A quiet night on Wall Street. Chris Caton reports.
Close Shares have ended marginally higher, after a day of trading marked by uncertainty, chalking up their sixth consecutive week of gains.
At the close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 9.1 points, or 0.2 per cent, at 4872.2, while the broader All Ordinaries index climbed 12.4 points, or 0.3 per cent, at 4890.1. Financial and Industrial stocks gained 0.2 per cent, while materials lost 0.2 per cent.
Today's advance capped the sixth consecutive week of gains, the market's longest winning streak in two and a half years.
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CommSec market analyst Juliette Saly said it was encouraging to not see the usual Friday afternoon sell-off.
‘‘If we can hold on to the slight gains that we’ve got, that will be a good outcome because we’ll hold on to those eight-week highs,’’ Ms Saly said.
Ms Saly said the Commonwealth Bank was a drag on the market, finishing 40 cents weaker at $56.21. Westpac rose 13 cents to $27.43, National Australia Bank gained 15 cents to $26.90 and ANZ firmed 23 cents to $25.11.
The major miners were mixed, with BHP Billiton gaining 4 cents to $43.20 and Rio Tinto dropping 80 cents, or 1.1 per cent, to $76.19. Rio Tinto struck a deal with Chinalco to develop the Simandou iron ore project in west Africa.
Energy stocks were higher despite a lower oil price overnight and in electronic trading on Friday.
Oil Search was 3 cents stronger at $5.90, Woodside put on 48 cents, or 1 per cent, to $46.73 and Santos was up 3 cents to $14.25.
Telstra in tight range
Making headlines, Telstra said there was a significant gap between it and NBN Co on the proposed financial outcome of the planned national broadband network. Telstra shares were steady at $3.17.
‘‘Telstra shares are holding fairly steady in a range from $3.16 to $3.19 - a very tight range,’’ Ms Saly said. ‘‘I imagine Telstra will be in a holding pattern until we hear more about the Senate debate ... about the split of the telco.
‘‘The Senate is not meeting again until May 11 but there is speculation they may not actually talk about Telstra until June. There will probably not be as much heavy buying in Telstra as we’ve seen in the last few sessions.’’
Packaging group Amcor rejected a damages estimation from an expert retained by claimants in a class action against Amcor over alleged price-fixing. Shares in Amcor found 3 cents to $6.11.
Lihir Gold firmed 5 cents to $3.20 and Newcrest fell 28 cents to $33.69.
Myer ex-dividend
In the retail space, Myer Holdings slumped 14 cents, or 3.99 per cent, to $3.37 after it paid a dividend. Myer’s rival, David Jones, backtracked 17 cents, or 3.3 per cent, to $4.92 after receiving mixed broker recommendations.
Coles owner Wesfarmers was up 69 cents, or 2.2 per cent, to $31.80 and Woolworths inched 2 cents higher to $28.78.
Apex Minerals was the top traded stock by volume, with 119.5 million shares worth $3.51 million changing hands. Shares in the base and precious metals explorer rose 0.2 cents, or 7.4 per cent, to 2.9 cents.
Preliminary market turnover reached 2.85 billion shares, worth $5.45 billion, with 610 stocks up, 448 down and 377 steady.
Digesting gains
With the strong run that pushed the market up 7.8 per cent in the last six weeks, analysts said investors would likely pause next week and assess recent gains.
The run has nearly erased the market's January slump and returned the benchmark index close to flat for 2010.
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AAP, with BusinessDay
