Despite negative offshore leads and being nearly 30 points lower at midday the market rallied in the afternoon session to close slightly higher.
Today, the S&P/ASX 200 index closed 16 points up to finish at 5,166. Over the week the index rose 76 points.
The value of trades was $4.4B on volume of 766 million shares at the close of trade. The top three stocks by value were NAB WBC and BHP.
On the futures market the SPI is 10 points higher.
Wall street
US major indices have fallen over the four trading days this week: The Dow Jones Industrial Average has lost 0.1 per cent. The S&P 500 Index has lost 0.5 per cent. The NASDAQ has lost 1.2 per cent. The 100 Index has added/lost 1.0 per cent.
Company news
Myer Holdings Limited
(ASX:MYR) has announced it will not renew the lease at its Brookside store north west of Brisbane. The lease is up in September so the store will trade through the stock take and Christmas periods and cease trading at the end of January next year.
Shares in Myer closed 1.72 per cent lower at $1.14
Peninsula Energy Limited
(ASX:PEN) says it has entered into a long term sale agreement with a major European utility. The contract comes after several years of negotiations and due diligence on Peninsula and its projects. The deal will underpin stage 2 production.
Shares in Peninsula Energy closed 3.75 per cent higher at $0.83
Auckland International Airport Limited
(ASX:AIA) says the recent announcement of a new service by Qatar Airways will contribute $198 million to the New Zealand economy.
Auswide Bank
(ASX:ABA) says that it has received approval from the Supreme Court of Queensland for the go ahead of its proposed merger with Queensland Professional Credit Union also known as Your Credit Union.
Best and worst performers
The best performing sector was Staples adding 0.9 per cent to close at 8617. The worst performing sector was Telcos, losing 0.7 per cent to close at 1,892 points.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Nufarm, rising 6.28 per cent to close at $7.78. Shares in Evolution Mining and Blackmores also closed higher.
The worst performing stock was Worely Parsons, dropping 5.81 per cent to close at $5.19. Shares in Mineral Resources and Slater & Gordon also closed lower.
Commodities
The price of gold is trading at $US1,272 an ounce, and is up $2.43 over the week.
Light crude is $0.67 lower at $US39.40 a barrel.
The Australian dollar is buying $0.7490 and is $0.5 up over the week.
