The Australian share market has closed the session higher today driven by gains in resource stocks like top miners BHP and Rio Tinto and gold miners like Newcrest Mining and Lihir Gold.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 31 points higher at 4,717 while on the futures market, the SPI200’s up 26.
To company news around this afternoon: Global miner BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP) says it has reached a wage agreement with union workers following a 41 day strike at the company’s Spence mine in Chile. According to Reuters BHP has agreed to increase wages by 4% for the whole period of the 41 month contract. The deal is likely to put a stop to further strikes at other BHP operations which could cause supply disruptions for the copper producer. Shares in BHP Billiton closed 1.07 per cent higher at $40.46.
There are reports that Microsoft has approached diversified media company News Corp (ASX:NWS) about a deal which could potentially see News Corp getting paid to remove its news websites off Google. News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch recently announced that he wants to start making people pay to view the company’s news websites as a way of recouping lost revenue from a fading newspaper industry. According to the Financial Times Microsoft, who launched its search engine Bing this year, has also approached other online publishers about removing their sites from Google as well. Shares in News Corp closed 1.59 per cent lower at $15.49.
Also making news: Coal miner Pike River Coal Ltd (ASX:PRC) has asked for an extension to a production condition on its US$27.5 million convertible bonds held by Liberty Harbor. The condition is that the mine be capable of producing 800,000 tonnes in the 12 months from the condition date which it has requested be extended till June 30 2010 from November 30.
LaserBond Ltd (ASX:LBL) has been awarded a $500,000 grant under the Australian Federal Government’s Retooling for Climate Change program to develop and commercialise its unique laser cladding technology and substantially reduce energy usage and green house gas emissions amongst its range of blue-chip customers.
Building products supplier James Hardie Industries NV (ASX:JHX) has posted a first half net loss of US$97.5 million compared to a profit of US$154.9 million in the same period last year.
And global miner Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO) says it is to receive US$741 million in connection with Cloud Peak Energy’s initial public offering and related transactions.
In the best and worst performers: The best performing sector at close today was the Materials index, which closed 207 points higher at 12, 262 while the worst performing sector at close was the Real Estate Investment Trust index; which lost 3 points to close at 889.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ ASX200 was Rio Tinto shares up 3.59 per cent at $73.78. Shares in Newcrest Mining and Leighton Holdings were the next best performers.
The worst performing stock was Sims Metal Management with shares down 4.1 per cent at $21.29. Shares in Perpetual and NAB also closed lower today.
In commodities, gold is trading at $1163.95 U.S an ounce and light crude is up 72 cents at $78.19 U.S a barrel.
