Market up as investors ignore scare bears

Stronger base metal prices and an upbeat Wall Street helped boost the sharemarket yesterday.
The ASX 200 index climbed 50.4 points to 4997.2 and the All Ordinaries rose 48.7 points to 4957.9 after the Dow Jones closed 48.82 points higher at 10,973.56.
ABN Amro Morgan client adviser Margaret Morrissey said the market had factored in a 25 basis point interest rate rise that was expected to be announced late last night by the US Federal Reserve.
"The scare bears were out there saying there would be a 50 basis point rise but I reckon it will be 25 and that's been factored in by the market," Ms Morrissey said.
There had also been a lot of window dressing by institutional investors tidying up their books before the end of the financial year, she said.
Higher commodity prices and stronger Asian markets helped boost resources stocks. BHP Billiton rose 46c to $27.79, Rio Tinto rose $1.28 to $75.59 and oil and gas producer Woodside 48c to $43.28.
Newcrest Mining rose 34c to $19.99, Lihir Gold edged up 1c to $2.70 and Newmont Mining added 6c to $6.81.
Ms Morrissey said Woolworths hit new highs after an analyst's report said Coles Myer was likely to merge its Bi-Lo stores with Coles supermarkets.
"There's a potential upside for Woolworths if Coles Myer does merge those stores because they could pick up some cranky customers," Ms Morrissey said.
Woolworths rose 41c to $20.16 after hitting a record high of $20.37. Coles Myer added 10c to $11.37.
Just Group fell 5c to $3.38 after announcing Howard McDonald would step down as managing director of the youth fashion business.
The major banks were higher. Westpac rose 40c to $22.85, CBA 61c to $43.90, ANZ 27c to $26.20 and NAB 41c to $34.80.
BlueScope Steel fell 29c to $8.04 after it announced 600 job cuts across its operations and warned of lower profits due to higher iron ore prices.
The company said it expected to deliver after-tax earnings per share in 2005-06 at the lower end of its outlook of 65c to 75c.
The Minister for Communications, Helen Coonan, told a business luncheon she was confident some of the media reforms would take effect by the end of this year.
Ms Morrissey said ABN Amro Morgan had upgraded John Fairfax to a buy with strong growth in digital revenue.
Fairfax rose 7c to $3.67 while PBL surged 55c to $18.
Global beverages firm Foster's Group rose 8c to $5.45 after saying it would sell one French and two Australian wineries, along with some packaging facilities, as it consolidated winemaking at regional sites.
Brambles Industries, which reaffirmed its expectations for "good progress" in profit and solid cash generation for 2005-06, climbed 20c to $10.70.
Telstra was steady at $3.69 with more than 31 million shares traded as the telecom's boss, Sol Trujillo, said the company would not invest in a new high-speed broadband network unless it could be guaranteed commercial returns on the project.