Australian Markets Report

Provided by The Australian Investor

Saturday 6th October 2001

After Monday's positive start to the week, Friday was also a positive day for investors as optimism spread amongst equity investors who had made small gains on previous days. The All Ordinaries gained 46.7 points (1.5 per cent) to 3114.2 while the S&P/ASX 200 advanced 48.2 points (1.5 per cent) to 3179.1.

The media sector again led the market, the media index jumping 689.3 points (2.8 per cent) to 25593.7. PBL jumped 31 cents (3.5 per cent) to $9.17, News Corporation gained 37 cents (2.8 per cent) to $13.46, APN advanced 13 cents (3.5 per cent) to $3.80 while Fairfax gained 7 cents (2.1 per cent) to $3.46.

However, today's most impressive stock was in the booming resource sector, the resource index jumping 34.5 points (2.6 per cent) to 1379.2. WA-based gold-miner Resolute capitalised on increased gold prices today announcing it would upgrade its Golden Pride mine in Tanzania, its shares jumping a staggering 525 per cent, from 8 cents to 48 cents. Meanwhile WMC jumped 44 cents (5.9 per cent) to $7.90, MIM Holdings surged 6 cents (7.2 per cent) to 89 cents, Rio Tinto gained 40 cents to $33.10 and Woodside advanced 39 cents (2.9 per cent) to $13.75.

The banking sector also pushed forward, the bank index gaining 144.6 points (1.8 per cent) to 8348.2. ANZ gained 43 cents (2.6 per cent) to $17.12 after announcing it had acquired Bank of Hawaii branches in Fiji, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea, NAB regained 64 cents (2.3 per cent) to $28.45 and Westpac advanced 27 cents (2 per cent) to $13.76

Among the other movers were Harvey Norman up 16 cents (4.8 per cent) to $3.59, Sonic Healthcare which gained 30 cents (3.9 per cent) to $8.02, Toll Holdings up 83 cents (3.5 per cent) to $24.60, Woolworth up 26 cents (2.2 per cent) to $12.35 and Telstra which rebounded 15 cents (3 per cent) to $5.20.

Industrials

The S&P/ASX 200 Industrials index gained 72.9 points (1.3 per cent) to 5490.2

Resources

The S&P/ASX 200 Resources index gained 37.5 points (2.8 per cent) to 1398.8

Gold

The gold index gained 10.5 points to 873.3

AUD

At 1600 local time the Aussie dollar was trading at:

$US 0.5031 up from 0.4989
Euro 0.5467 up from 0.5449
Yen 60.6 up from 60.06
$NZ $1.2209 up from $1.2178
Stg 0.3404 up from 0.339

Asian Markets

In TOKYO, The Nikkei gained 0.39 points (2.8 per cent) to 10205.8

In HONG KONG, The Hang Seng lost 74.3 points (0.7 per cent) to 10212.1 by the end of the first session

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