Bourse gets another lift from resources

The sharemarket put on more than $10 billion in value yesterday, spurred on by a bullish Wall Street and higher base metal and commodity prices.
Only two of the top 20 companies - Coles Myer and Wesfarmers - went backwards.
The ASX 200 index rose 68.6 points or 1.3 per cent to 5324 and the All Ordinaries index 64 points or 1.23 per cent to 5273.5.
Austock Broking senior client adviser Michael Heffernan said the materials sector, which includes the major miners, rose by more than 3 per cent.
"It's the resources which have been the dominating influence on the market today," Mr Heffernan said.
BHP Billiton rose 3.6 per cent or $1.09 to $31.39, Rio Tinto 3.55 per cent or $2.94 to $85.69 and Zinifex 6.4 per cent or 76c to a record $12.66.
National Australia Bank, which reports its interim profit result on Thursday, rose 83c to $37.40, ANZ 28c to $28.20 and Westpac 18c to $24.61.
Commonwealth Bank, up 30c to $46.40, will offer a diesel hedging product to small and medium sized transport companies looking for protection against spiralling fuel costs.
Investors were expecting retailers to do well from today's federal budget.
Tax cuts are likely to spur consumer spending.
Harvey Norman rose 13c to $3.80, David Jones 12c to $2.72 and Woolworths 12c to $18.98. Coles Myer eased 8c to $10.72.
Telstra rose 1c to $3.86 while Optus's parent company, SingTel, was steady at $2.27.
The Toll/Patrick war is on again with logistics group Toll starting legal proceedings against the takeover target for the role it played in soliciting a counter proposal from Macquarie Bank.
Toll wants the Victorian Supreme Court to make Patrick's managing director, Chris Corrigan, and chairman, Peter Scanlon, comply with obligations of a deed of agreement between the two companies.
Toll rose 60c to $13.70 while Patrick fell 8c to $8.90.
Qantas fell 3c to $3.42, Virgin Blue 3.5c to $1.775 and travel group Flight Centre 35c to $9.95.
Shares in drug company Acrux rose as much as 40 per cent following positive phase III trial results for Evamist, a spray for symptoms of menopause. The shares jumped as high as 93c before closing at 82c, up 15.5c or 23.31 per cent.
Warehouse Group fell 13c to $3.20. The budget retailer posted a 1.3 per cent increase in overall third-quarter sales to $NZ386 million ($322 million).
Telecom New Zealand rose 13c to $4.09.
Analysts say a poor third-quarter result for Telecom NZ's struggling Australian business, AAPT, and regulatory uncertainty have added further downside risks to the parent's share price.
Newcrest Mining rose 87c to $24 and Lihir Gold 6c to $3.35 but Newmont Mining bucked the trend, falling 16c to $7.29.
The top traded stock by volume was Imperial One, with 142.79 million shares traded for a total value of $4.24 million. The stock gained 1.1c to 3.4c.