Hectic Aust. trading

Press, 10 December 1983, Page 27

Hectic Aust. trading

NZrA Sydney Resource shares fell while industrial stocks reached a record high in hectic trading on Australian sharemarkets yesterday. The all-ordinaries index closed 1.2 points lower at 735.8, the all-industrials index climbed 8.8 points to a new peak of 959.0, and the allresources index sank 8.8 points to 558.4.

Declines outpaced rises, 10

to seven, as national turnover grew to sAustl64.3M, of which more than SIOOM was in Carlton and United Breweries, Ltd. The broker for Elder IXL, Roach Tilley Grice, soaked up most of the CUB Scrip traded in the wake of Elder’s announcement that it will stand in the market for CUB’S entire capital for one month immediately after Christmas. CUB’s ordinary shares jumped 37c from 345 to Elder’s on-market bid price of 382, while its contributing shares also matched Elder’s new offer price of 304, a 44c leap. Roach Tilley also moved to prop up Elder’s shares after they fell 8c to 382, and the stock closed 10c dearer at 400.

Intense speculation about a revaluation of the Australian dollar, coupled with a sharp fall in the price of gold in New

York, sent exporting mining stocks into a tailspin yesterday.

Among the gold stocks, GMK dropped 30c to 1000, Central Norseman lost 20c to 700, Emperor and Poseidon fell 10c to 330 and 465 respectively, Western Mining was trimmed 11c to 407, and Pancontinental Mining fell 9c to 115. The diversified miners also succumbed to pressure, CRA falling 14c to 566, MIM, North Broken Hill and Renison Goldfields falling 10c to 350, 305 and 375 respectively. EZ Industries slipped 6c to 580, Bougainville fell 7c to 265 and CSR eased 3c to 386.

BHP, however, bolstered by a drilling success in the Bass Strait, closed 5c up at 1370 after reaching 1380 earlier. Among solid-fuel stocks, Peko fell 20c to 596, Umal and

Coal and Allied declined 10c to 270 and 400 respectively, while Oakbridge fell 8c to 112. Howard Smith rose 4c to 450.

The new oil float, Laurel Bay Petroleum, chose a poor day to make its debut and closed three cents down at 22c on 1.72 million shares. Its options, however, picked up 7c to Bc.

Elsewhere in the oil sector, Crusader dropped 10c to 310, Vamgas fell 5c to 345, Santos lost 4c to 770, while Woodside eased 2c to 116. On the industrial boards, banks, merchants, transport, paper and packaging and alcohol and tobacco stocks all improved. Castlemaine Tooheys climbed 15c to 400, Rothmans jumped 26c to 896, and Philip Morris'moved up 20c to 580. In special situation, 1000

Brisbane TV shares were traded in Melbourne at 2430, 20c short of the latest offer price from TV Wollongong. Westpac was the strongest performer in the banking sector, gaining 8c to 395.