Aust. shares steady

Press, 18 March 1982, Page 22

Aust. shares steady

The Australian sharemarket was steady yesterday, indicating that Tuesday’s late burst of institutional buying was only a short-lived technical rally. Prices were mainly steady despite news of a fall on Wall Street, a slump in gold bullion prices in New York and a prime rate rise of half a percentage point to 16.5 per cent by several leading United States banks.

At the close of trading the all-ordinaries index was up 1.1 points to 465.9, and the all-industrials index two points better.. Banks were mixed. The ANZ Bank was down 2c, the National Bank up sc, and the Bank of New South Wales also 5c higher. Woodside petroleum eased a cent to 79c on a moderate volume.

Fraud squad detectives were continuing investigations into an attempted sharemarket swindle involving the stock. Almost 2.5 million Pacific Film shares were sold by Pring, Dean and Company at 56 cents, representing 6.6 per cent of Pacific’s issued capital.

The shares were in several parcels, 4c above Tuesday’s closing price. Brokers suggested that a mystery buyer was stocking up in an attempt to acquire a substantial holding in Pacific. In another large sale just over five million contributing and five million ordinary shares were traded in Offshore Oil. The seller is thought to be Offshore’s chairman (Mr B.

A. Ganke), who built up a sizeable holding years ago at discount prices. The sale represents 4.3 per cent of Offshore’s issued capital. Burns Philp rose 4c after selling the remainder of its holding in LNC Industries for 52.9 M on Tuesday. Burns Philp had been financially squeezed by its takeover of Mauri Bros and Thomson, the food group.