Stockmarket treads water, lacking a lead

The stockmarket closed marginally lower yesterday as a weaker resources sector weighed upon the bourse and overall trading lacked direction.
There was no lead from the United States and the United Kingdom markets because both were closed on Monday for public holidays.
"It was a pretty quiet day," CMC Markets senior dealer Phil Martin said.
The ASX 200 index was off 4.1 points to 5105.4 while the All Ordinaries dipped 3.1 to 5066.8.
On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the June share price index contract was off three points at 5092, on a volume of 10,307.
In the resource sector, BHP Billiton was down 14c at $29.33, Rio Tinto reversed $1.04 to $81.20, and Alumina shed 11c to $6.93.
New uranium explorer Aura Energy closed its first day of trading on the Australian Stock Exchange at 20c, the same as its issue price.
Oil and gas producer Woodside Petroleum gained 10c to $45.70 and Santos added 10c to $11.80. Oil Search finished 1c higher at $4.16.
The National Australia Bank fell 1c to $36.22, the ANZ fell 5c to $26.90, the Commonwealth Bank 25c to $44.27 and Westpac 5c to $23.40.
Retailer Coles Myer was up 11c to $11.48 and supermarket rival Woolworths was 3c higher at $18.98 as new trade figures showed that retail spending remained resilient in April despite high petrol prices and speculation of an interest rate rise.
Telstra slipped 3c to $3.73 and Optus owner Singapore Telecom dropped 1c to $2.12.
News Corp was 9c weaker at $26.32 while its non-voters retreated 8c to $25.07. PBL shed 4c to $18.88 and Fairfax was down 7c to $3.80.
In the gold sector, Newmont was up 5c at $6.82, Newcrest fell 9c to $20.56, Lihir Gold eased 3c to $3.06 and Bendigo was down 6c at $2.06. AngloGold Ashanti was down 15c to $12.15.
Emperor dropped 10c to 40c after placing 100 million of its shares at 40c.
The price of gold in Sydney was $US655.40 per fine ounce, up $US7.40 on yesterday's close.
Entertainment group Village Roadshow rose 9c to $2.21 as it announced the sale of "non-core" cinema operations in New Zealand, Fiji, Austria and the UK.
Cement and lime producer Adelaide Brighton rose 3c to $2.45 as it predicted its 2006 profit to rise to between $92 million and $96 million.
The top traded stock by volume was building, automotive and plastics products firm Nylex, with 42.57 million shares worth $2.29 million changing hands. Nylex was up 1.5c at 6.1c.
Diversified chemicals and laboratory company Campbell Brothers improved 20c to $15.40 after forecasting net profit growth of at least 20 per cent for this year.
National turnover was 910.25 million shares worth $2.89 billion, with 537 stocks up, 542 down and 358 unchanged.