All Quiet As Brokers Hope For A Spike

The Age

Friday January 10, 2003

STEPHEN MOYNIHAN

Market activity remained at a low ebb yesterday with little stimulus from overseas.

It was a case of the market needing a little less conversation and a little more action yesterday as trading remained flat with little direction from overseas markets.

Stockbroking firms hope that the sluggish trade will pick up over the next few weeks. ``If the market goes up in January it usually goes up for the whole of the year," said Michael Heffernan of F.W. Holst & Co.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index finished 9.8 points lower at 3064.9 while the All Ordinaries fell 6.8 points to 3035.6.

``It was a down a lot more at the beginning of the day and recovered for the better part of the day and eased off at the end," said Mr Heffernan.

``I think you could only describe it as a lacklustre performance and turnover was pretty ordinary too at $1.7 billion."

The banking sector had a quiet day. Commonwealth dropped 23 cents to $27.55, National Australia Bank fell 27 cents to $32.38, Westpac dipped four cents to $14.10 and St George was down by 18 cents at $18.15. ANZ bucked the trend with a rise of 10 cents to $17.80.

Hugh Gengoult-Smith, of Wilson HTM, said the dull trading could be attributed to trader uncertainty over potential conflict in the Middle East. ``That is a major stepping stone that we have to get by in regards to market confidence," he said.

As the dust clears in the headquarters of BHP Billiton after the departure of Brian Gilbertson, the share price slipped 15 cents to $9.81. This took its fall for the week to 5 per cent, equivalent to a drop in market capitalisation of $3.2 billion.

The group attributes the share price slide to negative commodity and exchange rate movements. But, considering the steady share price performance in the same period of its arch rival, Rio Tinto, the market blames the fall on uncertainty caused by last weekend's dumping of Mr Gilbertson.

Local brokers say overseas investors are particularly anxious to hear more about the reasons for Mr Gilberton's shock departure.

WMC Resources shed four cents to $4.29 while Rio Tinto was steady at $35. Alumina shed 14 cents to finish at $4.88. Caltex Australia leaked four cents to $2.16 and Woodside slipped seven cents to $12.

Media stocks put in a rather sluggish performance. PBL lost 15 cents to $8.80 while News Corp gained nine cents to $12.41. Fairfax lost seven cents to $3.21 while it was a battle of the ratings as Ten lost three cents to switch off at $2.29 and Seven gained two cents to $4.88.

BRIEF CASE SOLUTION 6

Solution 6 is the world's largest provider of specialised software for a range of businesses including accounting and law firms. Due to its strong software development it has forged strategic relationships with Microsoft, Novell and BankLink. Once considered the darling of IT and computer stocks, Solution 6 announced that in the 2001-02 year it had improved its performance to report a net loss of about $66 million, compared with a $136.11 million loss the year before. The company sold its IT services business to Alphawest Holdings for $18 million just before Christmas. Company secretary Steve Alperstein says it is in the middle of a three-year plan to increase growth.