Aust Stocks close slightly lower after positive day

AAP General News (Australia)
08-28-2000
Aust Stocks close slightly lower after positive day

By Blair Speedy

MELBOURNE, Aug 28 AAP - The Australian sharemarket closed marginally lower today, despite
several bullish company results pushing key indices into positive territory during the
session.

Mild gains in media, telco and retail stocks were wiped out by falls in financial and
resource stocks, leaving the all ordinaries index 3.6 points lower at 3322.7 points.

The S&P/ASX200 index lost 3.5 points to 3363.9.

The all industrials index dipped 2.6 points to 5781.2 while the all resources lost
7.1 points to 1392.1.

Wall Street provided a wishy-washy lead on Friday when the Dow Jones industrial average
rose 9.89 points to 11,192.63.

The Nasdaq composite index fell 10.60 points to 4,042.68.

On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the September share price index contract eased two
points to 3379.0 -- a 15.1 point premium to the S&P/ASX200 -- with 4932 lots changing
hands.

"We're getting some very good reports coming to the market, but looking ahead, there's
the Olympics just a couple of weeks away, and than there's October, which is traditionally
a poor trading period," D&D Tolhurst private lient adviser Carl Daffy said.

QCT Resources lifted after BHP and Mitsubishi Development announced a $1.20 per share
joint bid for the Queensland coal miner.

QCT rose 27 cents to $1.25 on turnover of 7.63 million.

BHP, which will also acquire a 4.95 per cent interest in the Genesis Field in the Gulf
of Mexico, tumbled 26 to $19.60.

Woolworths, whose 15 per cent jump in annual net profit to $292.5 million beat most
forecasts, gained 30 cents to $6.75 today.

Coles Myer and David Jones benefited from their rival's result, rising 24 to $7.49
and three to $1.39 respectively.

Smartcard group ERG posted a 73 per cent rise in full year net profit to $35.2 million
and announced a share split which was well received by the market.

ERG shares added 32.2 cents to $10.527.

Banks were all lower as ANZ fell seven to $13.18, Westpac dropped eight to $12.87 and
Macquarie dipped 13 to $27.70.

National Australia Bank was down 33 at $26.10 while Commonwealth Bank lost 19 to $29.65.

Mr Daffy said banks fell on profit-taking after recent strength.

Financial major AMP dropped 35.1 cents to $17.889, NRMA eased four to $2.29 and Axa
added three to $2.72.

Perpetual Trustees closed at a new record high of $32.00, up 47 cents. The stock has
risen strongly since reporting a 68 per cent rise in funds under management to $11.6 billion
over the past year.

Telecom NZ was 24 cents stronger at $5.16, second-string telco C&W Optus was down three
at $4.38 and AAPT closed one firmer at $7.10.

Telstra finished nine higher at $6.81, while the instalment receipts closed eight stronger
at $3.81.

Telstra is expected to report a net profit of about $3.9 billion for 1999/2000.

"The T2 instalment payment also has to be made on November 2 and the Vodafone float
is (expected to be) coming up, so there's a fair bit of money to come out of the market
and looking ahead there's expectations of some choppy water," Mr Daffy said.

News Corp finished 4.5 higher at $22.645, while the preferred shares dipped 8.3 to $19.117.

PBL fell 13.8 to $14.51, Seven dropped 10 to $7.80 and John Fairfax was down 0.7 cents at $5.113.

Among the techs, Melbourne IT fell 43 cents to $3.57, Computershare softened 20 cents
to $7.95 and Sausage dropped 18 cents to $1.80.

Shares in LookSmart gained 12 to $1.43 after confirming talks with Telstra over a possible
business alliance.

Mayne Nickless, which is expected to report a lower annual net profit on Wednesday,
was 4.2 cents stronger at $4.022.

Rio Tinto lost 56.3 to $27.95, MIM gained three to $1.19 on turnover of 16.2 million,
WMC dropped four to $8.31, Santos lifted 12 to $5.90 and Woodside added 9.5 to $14.10.

Spot gold in Sydney closed at $US274.45 per ounce, up from $US273.45 on Friday, while
the gold index closed 1.6 points lower at 742.6 points.

Normandy gained one cent to $1.01, Newcrest dipped 4.1 to $4.35 and Lihir was steady at 68 cents.

National turnover was 444.02 million securities changing hands for $1.20 billion.

Fall stocks outnumbered rises 790 to 657 while 549 were steady.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 stock average finished above the key 17,000 mark for the first
time since July 17, rising 269.79 points to 17,181.12, while in Hong kong, the Hang Seng
index was 139 points lower at 17,097.3 late in the session.

AAP bws/jph

KEYWORD: STOCKS

2000 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.