http://au.biz.yahoo.com//050221/28/3frv.html

Tuesday February 22, 12:45 AM

AUSTRALIAN STOCKS OPEN WEAKER - FEB 22, 2005

SYDNEY, Feb 22 Asia Pulse - Australian shares were down slightly at the opening this morning despite a raft of positive results from companies.

No lead was forthcoming from US markets, which were closed overnight for a public holiday.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 was down 3.1 points to 4165.1 at 1025 AEDT while the all ordinaries index had slipped three points to 4150.6.

Results were announced by companies including OneSteel, Aristocrat, Promina and David Jones but Macquarie Bank was enjoying a strong surge after saying last night it expected full year profits to be up more than 40 per cent on 2003/04.

CMC Group director of trading Brian Griffin said Macquarie Bank's quality of earnings seemed intact but queried the relatively low volumes of shares traded.

"The stock is up and it had a very good day yesterday," Mr Griffin said.

Macquarie Bank shares went as high as $51.95 in morning trade before coming back to $50.65, up 10 cents, at 1033 AEDT on volume of about 133,000 shares traded.

On the Sydney Futures Exchange the March SPI contract was down 10 points at 4148 on volume of 2,315.

Poker machine maker Aristocrat reported a net profit for the year to December 31, 2004 of $174.719 million, up from the $106.04 million loss in 2003.

Aristocrat shares were down 16 cents to $10.69 at 1038 AEDT after recovering from an early slip to $10.60.

Mr Griffin said there had been a "a fair amount of local buy interest" in Aristocrat in morning trading.

Steelmaker OneSteel reported an interim net profit of $57.9 million, up 27.3 per cent on the previous corresponding period.

Onesteel shares were up six cents or 2.2 per cent to $2.83 at 1041 AEDT.

Mr Griffin said the prospects for metal producers were good, as long as domestic demand held up and expectations of increased demand in China materialised as the cold winter months came to an end.

However he warned he "would not be overweight in steel makers".

"I would only be overweight in some of the miners ... such as BHP," he said.

Among other companies reporting, insurer Promina was off 3.1 per cent or 17 cents to $5.31 at 1045 AEDT after its announcement this morning of a 2004 net profit of $458 million, 54 per cent higher than 2003 on a proforma basis.

Retailer David Jones posted a 5.5 per cent rise in first half sales revenue to $997.7 million and lifted its full year profit guidance to the top of its long-term five to 10 per cent range.

Shares in David Jones were up one cent to $2.04.

Infrastructure company, and takeover target for Transurban Group, Hills Motorway was up 20 cents to $10.60 at 1049 AEDT.

Hills today reported a net profit of $4.77 million in the six months to December 31, 2004, up 36.4 per cent on the previous corresponding period.

ASIA PULSE