Weaker Aust. market

Press, 25 March 1981, Page 18

Weaker Aust. market

The take-over battle for the huge South Australiabased pastoral group, Elder Smith Goldsbrough Mort, entered a new phase yesterday as the Perth-based, Bell group announced that it now held 19.9 per cent and was withdrawing from the market to consider increasing its bid for the second time. The Bell group raised its offers by 100 c, to 500 c for ordinary shares, and 400 c for partly-paid stock as competition from an unidentified buyer, assumed by the market to be a “friend” of Elders, continued its push. Turnover on Australian markets yesterday totalled more than 12M units, includ-

ing partly-paid shares. Share prices rose to a high of 502 c in Sydney before dropping sharply after Bells announcement to close at 440 c, 10c up on the day. In other trading, a $l4 fall in the New York price of gold to $526 was followed by easier share values on the mining and oil boards, particularly among the key metal miners. • The all-ords index dropped two points to 701.6, with the

biggest falls in the all-met-als-and-minerals index, 9.7 points to 630.2, the solid fuels, 12.1 points to 780.1, and the volatile oil and gas index, which fell 13.7 points to 955.2. Gold producers themselves were surprisingly unaffected by the fall in bullion values. Elsewhere among the industrials Westfield continued its solid upward trend, adding 50c to hit the $lO mark. BHP managed a 10c rise to $14.30.