Australian share prices finished 0.41 percent higher Monday on a late boost after Abu Dhabi stepped in to shore up the struggling Dubai World conglomerate, dealers said. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index added 18.8 points to close at 4,654.0, while the broader All Ordinaries rose 16.8 points or 0.36 percent to 4,668.2. Dealers said values rose sharply in the final minutes after Abu Dhabi's government unveiled a 10 billion dollar boost for Dubai, where Dubai World has frozen debt repayments.
"We've seen a real spike in the market in the last 15 minutes. We've jumped about 30 points in a pretty short space of time," said CMC Markets' head of trading James Foulsham. "Some of the banks have recovered on the back of that news from the Middle East," he added.
The banks closed mixed with ANZ down 0.66 percent at 21.16 dollars and NAB 0.85 lower at 27.97, while Commonwealth rose 0.57 percent to 52.80 and Westpac gained 0.64 percent to 23.71. Mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto both finished higher, rising 0.37 percent to 40.65 and 0.47 percent to 70.51 respectively. Qantas Airways rose 3.49 percent to 2.67, Telstra gained 0.86 percent to 3.50 and supermarket chain Woolworths was up 1.64 percent to 27.27. Woodside Petroleum was in a trading halt at 47.18 after announcing a 2.5 billion dollar (2.3 billion US) entitlement offer.
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