Bourse subdued but confident

The sharemarket closed higher yesterday, boosted by the resources sector and a strong lead from Wall Street, as the Reserve Bank kept interest rates steady.
The ASX 200 rose 7.9 points to 4623.9 while the All Ordinaries firmed 7.6 points to 4576.3.
ABN Amro adviser Bill Bishop said it was a quietly confident day for the bourse.
"[The performance] is a combination of … the Reserve Bank not moving the interest rate and the solid news from America, overlaid by the ongoing resources strength in Australia," he said. "The market is still showing plenty of confidence."
The Reserve Bank left interest rates steady at 5.50 per cent for the ninth month in a row, in line with market expectations.
Among the resources stocks, BHP Billiton rose 2c to $21.85 and Rio Tinto jumped 85c to $63.84. Woodside Petroleum climbed 70c to $37.08, Santos lifted 4c to $11.79 and Oil Search rose 7c to $3.67.
Alumina rose 24c to $6.88 after several brokers upgraded the stock.
Goldminers continued to shine as gold traded around $US512.3 an ounce, up $US3.925 on Tuesday's close.
Newcrest firmed 45c to $21.48, Newmont was up 16c to $6.44 and Lihir Gold rose 3c to $2.11.
In banking, Commonwealth slid 49c to $41.20, ANZ 13c to $23.45 and National Australia Bank was off 2c to $32.08, while Westpac rose 15c to $22.05.
JPMorgan Securities said Westpac's earnings growth was "higher quality" than its competitors, in a note to clients by Brian Johnson, an analyst who rates the stock "overweight".
"Westpac can maintain lower than peer cost growth given its pipeline of efficiency gains."
Telstra fell 1c to $3.83. Ratings agency Moody's Investors Service cut Telstra's long-term credit rating, which usually affects debt maturing in more than two years, by one notch to A2, from A1, following a review.
In the media sector, PBL was steady at $16.59, John Fairfax rose 6c to $3.94 and Ten Network firmed 11c to $3.36.
Ten yesterday posted a 9.5 per cent drop in first quarter earnings to $127 million but said it was confident of retaining advertising market share next year.
Brewer and winemaker Lion Nathan rose 6c to $7.52 after shareholders of takeover target Coopers Brewery voted in favour of a share buyback ahead of a meeting next week to decide whether to accept Lion Nathan's hostile takeover bid.
Shares in Dia-B Tech surged nearly 70 per cent, or 5.2c, to 13c, after the researcher said it had found a natural way to cut blood sugar levels in diabetics quickly.
CSL rose 45c to $41.30. A cervical cancer vaccine developed by CSL and Merck would probably win "priority review" status from the US Food & Drug Administration and be sold in mid-2006, Merrill Lynch said in a note to clients yesterday. Merrill analyst Michael Carmody reaffirmed his "buy" recommendation.
Zinifex rose 18c to $5.65. The second-largest zinc producer was raised to "top pick" from "sector perform" by analyst Geoff Breen at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto. Zinifex was worth as much as $7, RBC said yesterday.
The top traded stock by volume was Energy Resources of Australia with 57.92 million shares worth $559.1 million changing hands. ERA shares fell $2.69, or 20.49 per cent, to $10.44 after three shareholders sold their combined 25 per cent stake for $455 million.