Australian market closes higher; All Ordinaries above 6,000

8:11 GMT

May 2008

(RTTNews) - Sydney shares closed higher on Friday, but off day’s highs, as BHP hit a new record high on more reports that Chinese interests are planning to acquire a stake in the group. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index closed up 40.3 points or 0.7% at 5,931.0 and the broader All Ordinaries index advanced 41.2 points or 0.7% to finish at 6,006.1.

The Australian dollar closed stronger at US$0.9434-0.9439, up from Thursday’s close of US$0.9365-0.9369.

On the economic front, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that the number of short terms overseas visitors arriving in Australia in April was 0.2% higher than that for the same month one year earlier.

BHP Billiton closed up 1.5% and its takeover target Rio Tinto added 1.9%. Fortescue metals climbed 0.5%. Gold miner Newcrest Mining gained 2.4% and Lihir Gold moved up 3.0% on higher gold prices in Sydney. In the oil sector, Woodside Petroleum edged up 0.3%, Santos jumped 3.3% and Oil Search surged 3.0%.

Among banks, Australia and New Zealand Bank climbed 2.9%, National Australia Bank gained 1.2%, Commonwealth Bank rose 0.3% and Westpac Banking advanced 0.8%. St. George Bank declined 0.6%, but Macquarie Group moved up 2.0%.

In the retail sector, Wesfarmers added 0.6% on the back of news that its coal division was able to more than triple its export prices. Woolworths advanced 0.3%, David Jones gained 0.8% and Harvey Norman jumped 2.5%.
GrainCorp, which has made an A$415.85 million takeover offer for Ridley Corp, fell 2.2%. Ridley gained 3.5%.

Patties Foods surged 10.1% after the pastry chef said it would deliver a normalized net profit of between A$14.5 million and A$15.5 million for the 2008 financial year.

However, Transfield Services slumped 24.53% after the company said that net profit would be lower than the market consensus.

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Posted in Categories: Economy, Releases.