Shares drop off as media ardour cools

The sharemarket closed lower yesterday, dragged back by retailer Coles Myer's rejection of takeover overtures and marked by a cooling of the blood among media investors.
At the close, the ASX 200 index was down 27.9 points to 5285.3, while the All Ordinaries was off 25.2 at 5256.9.
The December share price index contract reversed 20 points to 5301, though still at a premium to the physical, on volume of 16,261.
Australia's second biggest retailer, Coles Myer, lost $1.30, or 8.97 per cent, to $13.20 after rejecting a revised takeover bid of $15.25 per share by a consortium led by Kohlberg Kravis Robert.
In the resources sector, global miner BHP Billiton was off 27c at $27.18. Rio Tinto gained 83c to $75.05 after saying it would invest up to $2 billion to develop the world's largest undeveloped copper-gold resource in Mongolia.
Oil and gas producer Woodside retreated $1.05 to $39.05 as its record-breaking quarterly production was overshadowed by continuing problems at the Chinguetti oilfield off Mauritania and a cost blowout at the North-West Shelf expansion.
Santos was steady at $10.42 as it indicated its share of the cost of the massive mudflow disaster in Indonesia could climb to $43.7 million.
Among the big banks, the NAB lost 18c to $37.42, the Commonwealth was 41c weaker at $45.99, but the ANZ lifted 12c to $28.10 and Westpac rose 28c to $23.34.
In the media sector, PBL was off 64c at $19.95 but Fairfax nudged up 1c to $4.74.
News Corp fell 11c to $28.92 and its non-voting stock backtracked 3c to $27.82.
Supermarket operator Woolworths was 11c poorer at $20.57.
Telstra dipped 3c to $3.59 and Optus-owner Singapore Telecom rose 4c to $2.11.
Among gold stocks, Newmont dropped 15c to $5.62, Newcrest fell 25c to $22.25, and Lihir slid 7c to $2.78.
At the close in Sydney, the price of gold was $US589.90 per fine ounce, down $US1.70 from Wednesday's close.
Qantas Airways rose 21c to $4.13 as it upgraded its full year earnings guidance but said it would shed 340 jobs.
Paper maker PaperlinX jumped 16c to $4.01 following news that a major European competitor is looking at shutting down three paper mills.
The top traded stock by volume was Perth explorer Acclaim Exploration, with 65.9 million shares worth $3.02 million changing hands.
Acclaim was down 2.3c at 4.3c despite "encouraging" drill results from a South African gold-uranium deposit.
Small Melbourne medical technology and preventative healthcare company IM Medical was again heavily traded, 61.5 million shares pushing the price up another 0.3c to 1.9c. Ex-chairman Allan Blood has been buying - 10 million yesterday.