Australian share prices closed up 0.4 percent on Monday after Wall Street traded to another record high on Friday, supporting investor sentiment, dealers said. They said the gains were led by the key mining sector, with some investors believing that the recent weakness in commodity prices has been overdone.
Additionally, take-over speculation continued to provide support, with Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd the latest company put in the frame by a report it was planning to sell its media assets.
The benchmark SP/ASX 200 rose 21.0 points to 5,311, while the broader All Ordinaries Index climbed 22.5 points to 5,276.4. Turnover was 1.27 billion shares worth 4.6 billion dollars (3.5 billion US), with 644 stocks up, 464 down and 334 unchanged. BHP Billiton jumped 0.85 dollars or 3.21 percent to close at 27.35 while Rio Tinto advanced 1.86 or 2.53 percent to 75.29.
PBL shares ended up 0.42 or 2.16 percent at 19.85 after trading to a record high of 20.08, while Fairfax gained 0.06 to 4.48 and West Australian Newspapers climbed 0.33 or 3.41 percent to 10.02.
National Australia Bank shares fell 0.10 to 37.85, Westpac also lost 0.10 to 23.11, ANZ eased 0.01 to 27.80 but Commonwealth Bank gained 0.10 to 47.00. Agricultural stocks were badly hit as an ongoing drought becomes ever worse, prompting warnings from the government there could be a recession in the sector as a result.
Grain handling and marketing group GrainCorp shed 0.09 at 7.22 after warning it faced a net loss of 20-30 million dollars for the year to June 2007 due to the drought. ABB Grain was down 0.21 or 3.29 percent to 6.18.
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