Interest in diamonds spurs late buying

Press, 28 April 1980, Page 20

Interest in diamonds spurs late buying

The Australian sharemarket showed signs of a wider-based recovery at the end of the four-day trading week; the revived diamond sector joined the oil slocks to spur late buying. The diamonds, which have been languishing since a disappointing Ashton joint-ven-ture quarterly report three weeks ago, came on strong just before the finish on Thursday, as rumours circulated of further gem finds. C.R.A., which put in a flat perfprmane most of the week, jumped 15c to 490 c on Thursday and its ■ partner, Ashton Mining, finished the day 11c up to 238 c after

Itrading stcadil.y around the '225-mark the previous four 1 days. Elsewhere, demand conItinued unabated for central l Australiah • oil stocks after lan announcement of a 170barrel a day flow at the Cuttapirrie No. 1 well in South Australia’s . Cooper Basin. One of the Cuttapirrie partners, Santos, which has been a strong performer since reporting an oil flow at its Dullingari No. 4 well in the same area two weeks ago, finished the week at 820 c for a net rise of 50c on the week. Another consortium memib.er, ■ Vamgas, hit- a year’s I high of 430 c before profittaking whittled the stock back to 420 c for a 30c gain on the week.

Oil industry sources speculated that the Cuttapirrie discovery might be a small-to-medium-sized oil field. Reports of an imminent rise in Opec prices, and' fears that United States in- 1 centives might cut oil supplies from Iran was also thought to be responsible for the interest in the oil sector. However, brokers said oil buying alone would not be enough to fuel a meaningful recovery as long as gold and commodity prices continued! to drift. The oil action failed tol halt.a further slide in the| all-ordinaries index last] week; Thursday’s 3.72 point'

.rise was more than offset by a 6.39 point fall on Monday, and the market ended the week 2.82 points down from last week, at 780.28.

Oil news also proved one of the few bright spots on the industrial boards which took little, encouragement from a down trend in United States prime rates during the week.

A. which has Cooper Basin interests, firmed 18c to 218 c on the week, and Ampol Petroleum finished 11c higher at 198 c, after a 44.8 rise in Ampol Exploration half-year profit. B. ended up as one of the few oil-related stocks not to take part in the rises and finished the week 15c down, at 1195 c after going 20c ex-dividend.

In other developments, 'speculation that a major I shareholder in T.N.T. was 'unloading his holding followed the crossing of $2.4 'million worth of stock in three large lots on Thursday. The trading followed an announcement of an 88 per cent rise in third quarter profit. In the industrial sector, C.S.R. added 6c at 512 c, 1.C.1. was off 14c at 214 c, A.C.I. was down 2c at 201 c, Pioneer Concrete, shed 5c to 175 c, Tooths dropped 5c to 185 c, the Bank of New South Wales was steady at 285 c, and the A.N.Z. Bank was unchanged at 430 c.