Bourse's high hopes fail to hold ground

The sharemarket closed weaker yesterday after giving away earlier gains that were made despite the absence of a lead from US markets.
The major banks ended mixed and the big miners weakened.
"It's been a pretty flat finish," CMC Markets market analyst David Land said.
Mr Land said it was surprising that the big miners had not advanced, given solid trading for base metals in London overnight. He said the banks had performed solidly and the gold sector had benefited from a resurgent gold price in Asian trading.
The ASX 200 index was down 7.8 points at 5096.9 while the All Ordinaries dipped 6.4 to 5054.3.
Among the big movers were Australian Mining Investments, which went into a trading halt amid feverish speculation about a major copper discovery and possible takeover bid from Swiss mining group Xstrata.
The stock, which was 32c five weeks ago, traded as high as $10 yesterday morning and was last quoted at $7.11, up $1.86 on Tuesday's close.
Shares in Ansell fell 62c to $8.55 after the gloves and condom maker said its current year earnings would slide because of high latex prices.
The Reserve Bank left official interest rates unchanged at 5.75 per cent. The central bank last lifted interest rates by 25 basis points to 5.75 per cent in May.
NAB dipped 2c to $35.71, Westpac sagged 3c to $23.12, but ANZ lifted 14c to $26.78 and CBA added 18c to $45.03.
BHP Billiton fell 39c to $28.80 and Rio Tinto dropped 87c to $77.40. Woodside Petroleum rose 28c to $45.45, Santos shed 9c to $12.26 and Oil Search fell 3c to $4.08.
Beach Petroleum put on 3c to hit $1.58. Its Bass Strait associate, Anzon, reported a 7105 barrels a day retest on its Basker-3 well and closed up 1.5c at $1.265.
Origin Energy slipped 8c to $7.40. Origin said after the market had closed that the capital cost of the BassGas joint venture project, off the cost of Victoria, had blown out by $275 million to $750 million.
Clough, one of the contractors and in dispute with the Origin joint venture, was up 1.5c at 38.5c
The cost of the project, which began in April 2003, was originally pegged at $450 million.
In retail, Coles Myer dropped 10c to $11.70, while Woolworths fell 35c to $19.95.
Clothing retailer Colorado rose 1c to $4.23 after appointing Mel Sutton, an executive at Foster's Group, as its new chief executive and rejigging its senior management team.
SFE Corp shareholders have approved a merger with Australian Stock Exchange to create a $5.3 billion listed exchange. Shares in SFE fell 7c to $16.74 while ASX added 4c to $33.05.
Telstra rose 2c to $3.75 and Optus owner Singapore Telecom was steady at $2.15.
In the gold sector, Newmont rose 29c to $7.54, Newcrest rallied 45c to $21.75 and Lihir rose 7c to $3.02.
The top traded stock was gold and metals explorer Sundance Resources, with 29.2 million shares worth $2.7 million changing hands. Sundance ended the day up 1.9c at 10c.