Bourse lifts off lows after early slump

The sharemarket suffered a sharp fall yesterday but fears of a major correction after weak leads from overseas failed to materialise.
The local bourse dropped as much as 1.6 per cent in morning trade as Wall Street's biggest fall in three years on Friday frightened retail investors here.
However, analysts say the big end of town was largely unmoved by concerns in the US over a rising oil price and disappointing corporate earnings figures.
The ASX 200 index closed down 42.3 points, or almost 0.9 per cent, at 4812.1 while the All Ordinaries index fell 39.5 points to 4766.6.
Shaw Stockbroking head dealer Jamie Spiteri said expectations of a major correction yesterday failed to eventuate despite the big sell-off in the US on Friday.
"All we have seen is share prices marked back to take into account the pullback in the US on Friday evening," he said. "It illustrates the weight of money out there that is happy to take advantage of weaknesses in share prices."
Market heavyweights BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto fell 19c to $24.47 and 75c to $73.25 respectively.
But energy stocks provided a glimmer of hope yesterday thanks to the oil price. Santos rose 24c, or 2 per cent, to $12.72, Oil Search climbed 6c to $3.90 and Tap Oil was up 3c to $2.76.
Mr Spiteri said a notable performer yesterday was Qantas, which rose 1c to $3.90 despite the market's overall weakness and stronger oil prices.
Among other stocks to feature, Wattyl rose 4c to $3.46 after it announced it would declare a special dividend in an attempt to fend off a hostile $275 million takeover bid from Allco Equity Partners.
Monopoly wheat exporter AWB also continued to suffer from the fallout over revelations it funnelled $300 million to Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq. The stock fell 11c to $5.10, making for a 20 per cent slump in the share price since the inquiry into the company began early last week.
Nomura Australia equities strategist Eric Betts said a lack of domestic company news meant global markets tended to have a greater influence on the local bourse. "Overseas markets are quite weak and given we are trading near record highs it's never a surprise to see profit taking and consolidation," he said.
Mr Betts said the market was likely to remain volatile in the short term as investors awaited the beginning of the reporting season next month.
But he said the falls from record highs was a sign the market was in good shape as a continual rise was symptomatic of a bubble. Last Wednesday the bourse suffered its biggest one-day fall in three months, sparked by poor profit results in the US and a 3 per cent fall on Japan's stockmarket.