Bull market loses a little bit of steam

The stockmarket closed slightly lower yesterday despite firming in late trading, with mixed performances among key banking and mining stocks.
ABN Amro Morgans private client adviser Simon Ferguson said the big banks had enjoyed a good run upwards following the recent solid ANZ and St George profit results.
But there had been some slight disappointment among investors on the quality of the result from Westpac even though it was within expectations.
"That's probably flowed through to the other banks slightly," Mr Ferguson said.
Some profit-taking on the back of the weaker Dow Jones index in the US had also weighed upon the local bourse.
Nonetheless, Mr Ferguson said there was still good interest in the market, with plenty of takeover speculation, so investors did not want to sell too much.
At the close, the ASX 200 index was down 7 points at 5409.4, while the All Ordinaries was down 6.5 at 5377.1.
Westpac fell 21c to $23.80 despite posting a record annual profit and saying it expected improved performance momentum and strong cash earnings growth in 2006-07.
NAB dropped 24c to $38.20, the Commonwealth gained 12c to $47.81 and the ANZ improved 5c to $29.59.
In the resources, BHP Billiton stepped forward 8c to $27.60, Rio Tinto found 9c at $79.20 and Alumina jumped 26 cents to $6.65 despite on Wednesday lowering its profit expectations.
Woodside Petroleum slumped $1.09 to $36.95 while Santos picked up 6c to $10.70.
Among golds, Newmont rose 7c to $5.97 after posting a rise in third-quarter earnings. Newcrest reversed 7c to $24.35 and Lihir backtracked 3c to $2.77.
The price of gold in Sydney at 1627 AEDT was $US616.60 per fine ounce, up $US8.72 on Wednesday's close.
Television broadcaster Seven Network surged 64c to $9.96 as it said it expected improved ratings to boost earnings by up to 45 per cent in the first half of 2006-07.
PBL declined 33c to $18.99 and Fairfax eased 2c to $4.88. News Corp lost 53c to $27.67 while its non-voting stock fell 41c to $26.64.
Telstra fell 4c to $3.88 and Optus-owner Singapore Telecommunications slipped 3c to $2.22.
Retailer Coles Myer was 6c richer at $13.87 after it revamped its performance hurdles for key executives after long-time critic and former director Solomon Lew revealed last week that the targets were lower than its 2007-08 forecasts.
Woolworths fell 16c to $20.91.
Budget airline Virgin Blue was up 3c to $1.83 as it said it would spend almost $1 billion on 20 new aircraft which will fly throughout Australia and parts of the Pacific.