The local share market has closed the session slightly higher today rebounding from earlier losses on strong gains from financial stocks boosted by ANZ’s acquisition announcement.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 12 points higher at 4,713 and is up 20 points on week. On the futures, the SPI200’s down 2.
Looking to the U.S. and on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial index down 113 points on the four trading days this week. The S&P500 Index dropped 18, the NASDAQ declined 25 points and the 100 index fell 15 points.
To company news around this afternoon: CEO of conglomerate Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX:WES), Richard Goyder took home $8.1 million in total remuneration for the 2009 financial year, almost 61 per cent higher than the year before. Mr Goyder’s pay package included a cash salary of $2.9 million, up from $2.7 million in fiscal 2008 and $3.6 million in share-based payments compared to $1.6 million the year before, and a $1.1 million short-term incentive payment. However Mr Goyder along with his fellow senior executives have had their pay frozen for fiscal 2010. Wesfarmers shares closed 0.76 per cent higher at $26.66.
Construction equipment company Emeco Holdings Ltd (ASX:EHL) says an unsolicited takeover bid to acquire 100 per cent of the company from a financial investment firm has been withdrawn. The company says the offer price was slightly less than the net tangible asset backing per share of 74 cents and discussions between the two companies did not result in a credible offer. Emeco says it has also been approached by other interested parties and discussions have taken place, however it has decided to terminate further discussions at this point. Shares in Emeco Holdings closed 10.64 per cent lower at $0.84.
Also making news today: Chairman of minerals explorer Heritage Gold NZ Ltd (ASX:HTM) Geoffrey Hill says the company is worried over the reluctance of overseas groups to consider New Zealand as a mining and resource friendly environment as its efforts to find a suitable joint venture partner at Talisman continues. The company says it has received some interest from Chinese groups and is continuing discussions with a number of overseas parties.
And pharmaceutical company HalcyGen Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:HGN) says it has entered into an agreement with Hospira Australia to acquire all the outstanding shares in Mayne Pharma International for US$15 million. Mayne Pharma International is a specialist pharmaceutical company with an intellectual property portfolio built around the optimisation and delivery of oral dosage form drugs.
Now to the best and worst performers: The best performing sector at close today was the Financials excluding Real Estate Investment Trust index, up 84 points to 5,635; while the worst performing sector at close was the Materials index; down 103 points to 11,328.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX200 was AWB shares rose 7.98 per cent to $1.32 after the company announced it had raised $220 million from institutional investors. Shares in Babcock & Brown Infrastructure Group and PaperlinX also closed higher.
The worst performing stock was Emeco Holdings, price as mentioned before. Shares in St Barbara and Minara Resources also closed lower today.
The Aussie dollar is currently buying 87.12 U.S cents and is up slightly on the week. Gold is trading at $998.10 U.S an ounce and is down $8.05 on the week.
Finally, oil is up 52 cents at $66.41 U.S a barrel.
