Rates steady, share buyers out of puff

The sharemarket closed marginally weaker yesterday despite the Reserve Bank deciding to leave interest rates on hold for the eighth month in a row.
Macquarie Equities associate director Lucinda Chan said trading was mixed across all sectors, with the Government's announcement of a specific terrorist threat coinciding with the decline. "The potential terrorist threat may have caused a bit of a dip," she said.
The ASX 200 fell 18.4 points to 4456.3 while the All Ordinaries fell 16.2 points to 4408.8.
Earlier, the Reserve Bank announced interest rates would remain on hold at 5.5 per cent, in line with expectations. But concerns about inflation remained in the US, where the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate 25 basis points to 4 per cent and said it would continue to raise rates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 33 points to 10,407.
Among the banks, ANZ lost 25c to $23.39, NAB fell 17c to $32.93 but Commonwealth rose 8c to $39.33.
Westpac went into a trading halt earlier after the bank brought forward its profit result after inadvertently disclosing information to analysts and brokers on Tuesday.
The bank announced an 11 per cent rise in full-year net profit to $2.818 billion after the market closed, as well as announcing it would buy back about $700 million in shares.
The shares last traded 7c weaker at $20.51.
Resource stocks were mixed, with BHP Billiton down 19c to $20.70 but Rio Tinto up 11c to $57.11. Newcrest Mining gained 50c to $19.
Oil and gas producer Santos rose 4c to $11.15 after it won an exploration permit in the Timor Sea while Woodside Petroleum gained 60c to $32.
Shares in Leighton Holdings closed down 36c to $14.91 having hit $14.47 after a structural collapse at its Lane Cove tunnel construction site in Sydney.
Telstra, which was forced to redirect some of its call traffic after the collapse affected cables, fell 3c to $4.20 while Optus owner SingTel added 1c to $1.86.
Among retailing stocks, Foodland climbed 9c to $27.34 after shareholders approved its demerger and sale to Metcash and Woolworths.
Woolworths dipped 6c to $16.30, Metcash rose 2c to $4.05 and Coles Myer fell 9c to $9.89.
Foster's Group lost 4c to $5.75 after the brewer said it was planning to sell its Geyserville winery in California to The Coppola Companies for an undisclosed sum.
Shares in property developer Multiplex Group gained 4c to $3.28 after it maintained its guidance for 2005-06 but warned that any adverse effects from its Wembley Stadium project still posed a material risk to earnings.
Fone Zone Group closed 6c above its issue price of $1 after debuting on the stock exchange yesterday at $1.04.
Online travel agency Webjet, down 0.5c to 39c, said its October sales had more than doubled in value compared with last time.
Crane Group fell 12c to $10.40 after saying a downturn in the building industry in NSW would affect earnings.
Downer EDI rose 9c to $6.29. The engineering group said it had never been in a stronger position and its outlook was positive.