Shares rise a tad as gold and crude rally

After dipping into negative territory around midday yesterday, the stockmarket had nudged ahead by the close as gains in precious metals and oil got the better of the weak lead from Wall Street on Friday.
The ASX 200 index added 18.32 points to close at 5092.2 while the All Ordinaries was up 15.9 to 5049.9.
Patersons Securities' associate director, Michael Brindal, said the market had benefited from strength in the gold price, which he said was boosted by positive US inflation figures.
"There was some inflation data that came out of the US on Friday that was relatively benign, so that's helped spark today's gold rush," he said. "That came on the back of a rate hike the night before and the commentary associated with that - that really sort of soothed the market in terms of interest rate outlook and now that's spilled right through into the gold price."
The big goldminers all finished ahead, with Lihir Gold up 13c to $3.01, Newcrest up 9c to $21.17 and Newmont up 12c to $7.17. The Sydney spot gold mid-point was $US620.30, up $US20.30 on Friday's close.
BHP Billiton gained 27c to $29.27 and Rio Tinto rose 20c to $78. Woodside Petroleum gained 78c to $44.78, Santos rose 6c to $12.16 and Oil Search lifted 12c to $4.22.
Caltex Australia put on 14c to $23.74 after it forecast a first-half net profit between $160 million and $170 million, after excluding the effect of volatile fuel prices.
Commonwealth Bank picked up 35c to $44.76, NAB rose 35c to $35.51, ANZ climbed 10c to $26.69 and Westpac was steady at $23.28.
Adsteam shot up 54c or 26.6 per cent to $2.57 after the tugboat operator received a $693 million friendly takeover bid from the world's biggest ship owner, AP Moller-Maersk.
Packaging maker Amcor lifted 12c to $6.80 after it said it had agreed to acquire a 16.67 per cent stake in K Laser China for $US10 million ($13.49 million).
Takeover target UNiTAB maintained its support for a merger with Tattersall's after an independent expert concluded that a $1.9 billion takeover offer from Tabcorp was not fair, although reasonable. Shares in Tabcorp lost 3c to $15.17, UNiTAB gained 3c to $14.79 and Tattersall's lost 3c to $2.79.
Promina fell 8c to $5.54 as the insurer announced the sale of Vero Lenders Mortgage Insurance to Genworth Financial Mortgage Insurance for about $220 million.
Insurance Australia Group rose 5c to $5.40 after announcing its bid to buy a 24.9 per cent stake in China's second largest insurer had progressed to the regulatory review stage.
AMP was up 12c to $9.25 and QBE was up 33c to $20.83.
Multiplex was up 1c to $3.28 after the construction group announced further possible delays to the expected completion date of its Wembley Stadium project, already way behind schedule.
Biota rose 13.5c to $1.345 after announcing the US Government intended to order another 12.3 million courses of its influenza drug, Relenza.
Telstra fell 1c to $3.67.
Ten Network fell 1c to $2.63 after it said it expected to grow its digital capabilities.