Shares cap best run in a year

January 27, 2012

Australian shares posted their best winning streak in almost 12 months as Europe fears ebb.

4.35pm: That's just about it for today's live coverage. We'll be back on Monday at 9.30am AEDT, so please join us then. Here's the evening markets wrap.

Next week's local highlights include Woolworths and Wesfarmers reporting their second-quarter sales and ABS releasing house prices for eight major cities.

4.30pm: For the record, the All Ords ended the week up 1 per cent too.

The Aussie dollar, meanwhile, is trading at $US1.061, off its high of $US1.064 earlier in the day. It's also buying dead on 81 euro cents, 81.8 yen  and 67.7 pence.

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4.24pm: The major banks, meanwhile, were mixed within a narrow range - between a loss of 0.1 per cent and a gain of 0.2 per cent.

4.21pm: Among major stocks: BHP rose 0.6 per cent, Rio 2.1 per cent and Fortescue 4.1 per cent. Newcrest also added 3.7 per cent. On the nose today were Bluescope and OneSteel, which lost 6.1 per cent and 6.6 per cent, respectively.

4.19pm: Among the major sectors, materials led the way with a 1.3 per cent gain for the day, while energy added 0.25 per cent and financials just 0.1 per cent.

4.16pm: The All Ords, meanwhile, rose 19.4 points for the day, or 0.45 per cent, to 4348.5 points.

4.14pm: ASX200 advanced about 1 per cent for the week, making it four weekly gains in a row. That's also the longest stretch of advances since February last year.

4.12pm: ASX200 ends the day up 17.1 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 4288.4 points.

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3.58pm: Meanwhile, Cyclone Iggy is heading towards the WA coast line. Communities and companies are bracing for what might become a category four cyclone, as Rania Spooner reports.

About a quarter of Australia's oil production has been halted for now.

3.53pm: The late decline is leaving stocks about where they started the day, but the market remains about 1 per cent higher for the week.

3.37pm: Stocks have off their highs in late trade - as the graph above shows. The ASX200 is now up 21.8 points, or 0.5 per cent for the day, at 4293.1. Earlier, the market went as high as 4315.6.

3.24pm: The federal opposition believes the RBA should do much of the heavy lifting if the local economy needs a boost in the face of a souring global economy.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) briefing note shows Australia did not miss out in a new round of global economic growth downgrades, with the agency now forecasting three per cent growth in 2012, down from the 3.3 per cent forecast in September.

The note, which has only just come to notice, was published ahead of the IMF's World Economic Outlook Update released earlier this week which made no specific reference to Australia.

3.04pm: In breaking news, the entire stock of failed Fletcher Jones menswear retailer is to be liquidated in a sale starting as early as tomorrow, Ben Butler reports.

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