Market edges higher despite NAB slide

The sharemarket gained ground to close stronger yesterday after volatile trading as National Australia Bank continued its slide.
The ASX 200 index was 17.6 points stronger at 4543.7 while the All Ordinaries gained 16 points to 4492.3.
Reynolds & Co adviser Michael Heffernan said the market had been all over the place with many shares changing hands. "I think they were looking for some sort of direction which hasn't come," he said.
"The sign is that we have got a bull market on."
He said the market could be disrupted by reports on terrorism, such as the death of Azahari Husin on Wednesday night in Indonesia as at least one other suspect was blown up.
"The only thing that is going to stuff up this market is these idiots that go around blowing themselves up."
The banking and financial sectors had been the best performers yesterday, Mr Heffernan said, with the exception of NAB which had continued falling after on Wednesday warning tougher conditions were ahead.
"It is a little bit iffy at the moment, but the volumes tell you this market is going up," Mr Heffernan said.
National Australia Bank slumped a further 66c to $32.52 while Commonwealth slid 18c to $40.35. Elsewhere Westpac put on 43c to $22.05 and ANZ inched 5c higher to $23.10.
Among other financials, Macquarie Bank surged 85c to $68.33 and St George added 20c to $28.35.
Heavyweight miners were mixed, with BHP Billiton up 8c to $21.11 while Rio Tinto lost 4c to $59.21. Woodside Petroleum gained 25c to $33.15.
Building products company James Hardie Industries lost 34c to $8.18 as the company continues to negotiate a compensation deal for victims of the asbestos products.
Retail stocks finished in negative territory.
Coles Myer led the way, down 15c to $9.83, after saying it was cautious but not pessimistic about the retail environment.
Woolworths slipped 14c to $16.72 while upmarket retailer David Jones fell 1c to $2.39.
Singapore Telecommunications, the parent company of telecom Optus, dropped 2.5c to $1.895 after Optus said it was considering cost-cutting initiatives following a second consecutive drop in quarterly net profit.
Telstra, meanwhile, pushed 5c higher to $4.23.
Media stocks were mixed with Publishing & Broadcasting putting on 20c to $16.75 while John Fairfax lost 5c to $4.06.
News Corp dipped 6c to $20.80 and its non-voting shares lost 7c to $19.82.
Shares in Leighton Holdings climbed 16c to $15.08 after the company said it would spend $215 million buying the mining assets of failed mining contractor Henry Walker Eltin.
The price of gold was $US466.05 an ounce, up $US3.30 on Wednesday's local close.
Gold stocks were stronger with Newcrest jumping 39c to $19.20, Lihir Gold pushing ahead 8.5c to $1.955 and Newmont rising 13c to $5.97.
Biotech Rockeby Biomed was the most traded stock by volume. Some 49.95 million shares worth $2.32 million were traded as the stock lost 0.2 of a cent to 4.7c.