But all eyes were on Smorgon Steel in the afternoon, which ended...

But all eyes were on Smorgon Steel in the afternoon, which ended the day 4.1% higher. Broking sources told Dow Jones Newswires that Bluescope Steel, which finished the day unchanged, bought 140 million shares in Smorgon Steel today and is nearing the 19.99% takeover threshold.

The brokers said Bluescope paid $1.81 a share for about 100 million Smorgon shares. The shares purchased Thursday represent about 15.6% of Smorgon, which has agreed to a $1.6 billion merger with OneSteel. One broker said Bluescope is already believed to have a stake of about 4% in Smorgon, the newswire claimed. OneSteel shares rose 2.6%.