interesting day coming

The Age Business

Takeover talk fuels market rise
Email Print Normal font Large font Rebecca Keenan
August 30, 2006

SHARES

Other related coverage
ASX CLOSE Stocks close higher as takeover talk grows
ASX OPEN Stocks suffer sluggish start
ASX Market up despite flat night on Wall St
SHARES Investors wait for direction from US
ASX OPEN Stocks get boost from US gains
Advertisement
AdvertisementThe sharemarket closed higher amid continued market speculation that some key companies are about to become takeover targets.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 43.4 points higher at 5067.6 after gains on Wall Street.

"It was a reasonably good night on the Dow and the market has really followed on from yesterday," said Man Financial broker Anthony Anderson. "There is a little bit of takeover talk in the market and the market feels supported with that."

The biggest contributor to the index's advance was Foster's, which surged 50¢, or 9.2 per cent, its biggest one-day rise in almost 16 years, to $5.95. Chief executive Trevor O'Hoy yesterday declined to comment on market speculation that the company might be a takeover target. Foster's yesterday posted a 26.8 per cent jump in annual profit for 2005-06.

Speculation of a potential move on Coles Myer also continued, with its shares nudging 1¢ higher to close at $13.83.

Another retailer, Westfield Group, yesterday posted a first-half net profit of $3.38 billion, up 120 per cent. Despite this, the shares fell 22¢ to $18.16.

The weaker oil price pushed local energy stocks lower, with Woodside, which has initiated a $US883 million takeover bid for a US company, dropping 27¢ to $41.78. Other energy stocks were also lower, with Santos down 4¢ at $11.44 and Oil Search losing 9¢ to $3.32.

The big miners were firmer. BHP Billiton moved up 27¢ to $27.74 and Rio Tinto rose 57¢ to $73.45.

The spot gold price finished down $US5.80 an ounce at $US617.25 in Sydney trade. The gold miners moved accordingly, with Newcrest dropping 16¢ to $19.20, Newmont losing 10¢ to $6.80 and Lihir Gold falling back 7¢ to $2.91.

The Big Four banks all gained ground. ANZ rose 40¢ to $26.85, Commonwealth 51¢ to $45.16, National Australia Bank 36¢ to $36.01 and Westpac 27¢ to $23.05.

Media group Seven Network delivered an annual profit of nearly $108 million, up 28.6 per cent on the previous year, pushing its shares up 20¢ to $9.38.

Among other media companies, Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd dropped 14¢ to $18.01, Fairfax moved up 11¢ to $4.04 and News Corp's non-voting shares gained 17¢ to $24.69 as the voting scrip picked up 3¢ to $25.70.

The most traded stock on market was Imperial Corp, with nearly 73.9 million shares traded, worth a total of $1.62 million. The shares gained 0.6¢ to 2.4¢.

A drop in the price of oil overnight underpinned the stronger performance of US stocks, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 67.96 points at 11,352.01, the S&P 500 Index finding 6.69 points to 1301.78 and the Nasdaq Composite putting on 20.41 points to 2160.7.

AAP, with BLOOMBERG


Cheers Holders