Aimless bourse closes higher

The Australian stockmarket managed to edge slightly higher at the close yesterday after an uninspiring day of trading with few clear trends.
The ASX 200 crept up 5.4 points to 4903.9 while the All Ordinaries closed 5.3 points higher at 4867.4.
On the Sydney Futures Exchange the March share price index contract ended day trading up 10 points at a tiny premium at 4905 on volume of 12,929.
Intersuisse equities manager Andrew Sekely said it had been an "uninspiring" day with the market opening weaker, slowly winning back ground and then just getting its nose into positive territory before the close.
"The only trend that has been noticeable is that there is just no trend at all," he said.
Mr Sekely said the fortunes of the big four banking stocks illustrated the lack of direction, with two making solid gains while two lost ground. NAB gained 32c to $36.82 and ANZ advanced 17c to $25.69 but the Commonwealth fell 30c to $43.70 and Westpac 14c to $23.05.
Mixed commodity prices meant the big miners got off to a slow start but BHP Billiton ended the day up 17c at $24.51 and Rio Tinto closed 50c higher at $70.85.
In the media, News Corp climbed 32c to $23.58 while the non-voters rose 24c to $22.22.
PBL shot up 40c to $17.47 on news of its acquisition of a $US900 million ($1.21 billion) sub-concession to own and operate hotel casino resorts in Macau.
John Fairfax fell 4c to $3.90 after announcing a drop in first half earnings and the $NZ700 million ($625 million) purchase of a New Zealand online auction website.
Transport firm Toll shot up 43c to $12.15 after it announced it had taken up a controlling stake in Singapore's SembCorp Logistics.
Grocery wholesaler Metcash went the other way, tumbling 21c to $4.59 after saying it expected to sell many of its recently acquired Foodland supermarkets by October.
Woolworths advanced 8c to $18.85 and supermarket rival Coles Myer firmed 1c to $9.94 as its board began considering bids received for its Myer department store chain.
Virgin Blue was up 1c to $1.70 after part owner Sir Richard Branson said it was likely the budget airline would compete with Qantas on the Sydney to Los Angeles route. Qantas ended the day up 5c at $4.
Telstra moved up 2c to $3.88 while Optus-owner Singapore Telecommunications was unchanged at $2.20.
A weak lead from the US on Friday set the scene for the lacklustre local market, the Dow Jones having fallen 3.92 points to 11,021.59 while the S&P 500 eased 1.91 points to 1,287.23.
The spot price of gold in Sydney closed at $US567.10 per fine ounce, down $US2.35 on Friday's close.
Gold stocks were mixed with Newcrest unchanged on $21.75, Newmont down 12c to $7.23, Lihir Gold up 8c to $2.34, Bendigo Gold up 14c to $2.40 and AngloGold Ashanti diving 68c to $13.62.
The top traded stock by volume was Bolivian copper explorer Sundance Resources with 87.2 million shares worth $5.92 million changing hands, up 1.8c, or 34.6 per cent, at 7c.