Gold miners surge on India's purchase

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Gold miners surge on India's purchase

Wednesday November 4, 2009, 5:49 pm

The Indian central bank's 200 tonne gold purchase was the main factor keeping Australian stocks in the black.

Gold miners enjoyed the market's strongest gains, and helped the All Ordinaries finish 0.2 per cent higher at 4,548 and the ASX 200 to close up 9 points at 4,540.

While gold stocks pulled the raw materials sub-index up 0.8 per cent, Telstra's 1 cent rise helped keep telcos in the black, and some broker upgrades helped retail stocks, despite the latest official figures showing a slide in sales during September.

Major movers

Australia's biggest gold miner, Newcrest, climbed 3.2 per cent. But rivals Kingsgate, St Barbara, Sino Gold and Lihir Gold jumped even higher, by 10.4, 7.8, 5.1 and 4.4 per cent respectively, as gold hit a fresh record price.Harvey Norman's 2.6 per cent rise on a broker upgrade helped the retail sector overcome a fall in September retail sales.West Australian Newspapers also assisted the consumer discretionary sector after two broker upgrades following its $23 million first-quarter profit result.Construction firm Leighton Holdings fell 2.5 per cent on a broker downgrade and faces another shareholder backlash over its chief executive's pay packet.Westpac received a warm reception from the market for its annual results, rising 1.4 per cent to $25.79, while one of its main rivals fell, and the other two edged ahead.Among the losers today was poker machine maker Aristocrat Leisure, down 3.5 per cent to $4.20.Bank of Queensland also slipped 2.8 per cent.

World markets

Regional markets also generally posted modest gains, despite an indifferent lead from the US, and a steeper banking-related fall in the UK overnight.In Tokyo, the Nikkei closed 0.4 per cent higher at 9,844.Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 1.6 per cent by 5:30pm (AEDT).The Shanghai composite index edged 14 points higher to 3,128.Singapore's main share index climbed 0.8 per cent.

A long way out from the start of trade, US futures are pointing to a moderate rise, while Europe is also expected to be up as traders expect the US Federal Reserve to confirm that low interest rates will remain in place for a long time to come.

Oil remains below $US80 a barrel, with West Texas at $US79.35 and Tapis at $US78.40.

Gold has edged off a fresh record at $US1,088.50 to be worth $US1,082.40 an ounce at 5:30pm.

The Australian dollar took a small hit from the disappointing September retail sales figures, but was trading above 90 US cents at 5:30pm, when it was fetching:90.14 US cents81.45 Japanese yen61.20 euro cents54.87 British pence1.2531 New Zealand dollars

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