Aust. market dull

Press, 31 May 1982, Page 12

Aust. market dull

The Sydney sharemarket drifted without direction throughout the week as local traders reflected the cautious mood overseas. Volumes remained at a low level.

During the week, the allordinaries index gained 2.7 points to 508.7, the industrial measure put on a point to 663.7, and the resource marker increased four points to 382.7. The 50 leading stocks index improved three points to 462.9., and the metals indicator increased a point- to 518.8. The week began with the market hardly reacting to the week-end attempt by British troops to recapture the Falkland Islands. Interest centred on Bond Corporation which said it may be selling an undisclosed major asset to a major corporation; over the week Bond gained 25c to

135 c. Santos, in which Bond has a 15 per cent stake, also rose on speculation that it was the asset up for sale at about SI3OM. it gained 30c over all to 560 c. The Cooper Basin participants, Basin Oil and Reef Oil. in which Bond also has interest also improved. Basin put on 20c to 18Cc, and Reef gained 20c to 135 c. BHP got off to a better start despite a.fall of 9 per cent in raw steel production for April compared with March; over the week BHP was 8c up at 792 c; CRA rose 2c to 312 c after sealing a SI7SM loan agreement from 12 Japanese banks. On Tuesday a small influx of Asian buyers pushed prices higher, but brokers said the market was forced upwards because of a lack of sellers to meet the sudden demand rather than the size

of the buying orders. Arnotts, the biscuit-maker, was the target of buying throughout the week, with Allied Mills believed to be the buyer in a friendly move towards Arnotts. Allied suppplies Arnotts with raw materials. Arnotts was steady at 190 c over the week. Jennings, which has the licence to build a casino complex on the Gold Coast, was heavily traded. Around 3.6 per cent of its issued capital was traded on Thursday and over all the stock • rose 4c to 130 c. During the week. Western Mining fell 2c to 363 c, after making a share placement of 19M shares worth ?68.4M to local and overseas institutions at 360 c. Wool worths gained 3c during the week to 168 c. Myer put on 7c to 132 c and ANZ Bank increased 3c to 395 c.