Aussie shares hold their own, shrug off US conniptions

The sharemarket brushed off a weak finish on Wall Street last week to end the day slightly lower.
The ASX200 index finished down just 9.5 points at 5760.4, while the All Ordinaries was off 9.3 points to 5744.0.
Bell Potter Brisbane senior adviser Stuart Smith said the market came into its own yesterday and ended only slightly down.
"We've had a good day with strong volumes and the market hasn't received a fright from the US," he said.
"The ASX 200 is going to keep on going up from here and I think gold has the ability to reach $US670 before the week's out.
"For BHP and Rio, I think the worst is over and both are now on their way up, I think the whole market will be, in fact, by the end of this week."
The Dow and the S&P 500 ended slightly lower on Friday as investors worried that strong economic reports would hurt prospects for an interest rate cut.
The Dow Jones, after sustaining a sharp fall on Thursday, fell 15.54 to 12,487.02 on Friday and the S&P500 slipped 1.72 to 1,422.18.
The Nasdaq Composite Index inched up 1.25 to 2,435.49.
Rio Tinto was down 28c to $77.17, while BHP Billiton lifted 15c to $26.24.
Though oil was ever so slightly stronger last week and in early trading last night Oil Search lost 6c to $3.38, Santos fell 12c to $9.36 and Woodside dropped 12c to $37.15.
The banks were mixed. ANZ climbed 3c to $28.96, Westpac dropped 7c $24.93, the Commonwealth fell 30c to $49.85 and NAB lost 27c to $20.05.
Australia's fifth largest bank, St George, rose 30c to $33.12.
Seven Network shares fell 4c to $11.71 even though a report said it had attracted a higher percentage of commercial television advertising revenue than the rival Nine Network for the first time in a non-Olympic year. Nine's owner, PBL, fell 54c to $19.76.
News Corp lost 10c to $31.16, while Ten bucked the trend and rose 2c to $3.56.
Energy company Alinta was down a penny to $13.92 after saying that its adviser, Macquarie Bank, had agreed to several protocols relating to a proposed management buyout. Macquarie Bank was steady at $81.00.
AGL Energy lost 16c to $17.08 after it agreed to buy the Torrens Island gas-fired power station, near Adelaide, from TRU Energy for $417 million in cash and an asset swap.
Qantas was steady at $5.37 after officials announced the airline was in talks to buy a stake in Vietnam's second-largest carrier, Pacific Airlines. Rival Virgin Blue was down 1c to $2.59.
The retail sector was mixed. Woolworths was down 20c to $23.07, Coles lost 4c to $14.06, Harvey Norman fell 2c to $4.10 and David Jones was steady at $4.36. Retail landlord Westfield was up 45c to $22.15.
Telstra lifted 1c to $4.25, as did the receipts to $2.82, while Singapore Telecom, owner of rival Optus, climbed 4c to $2.99.
The spot price of gold in Sydney closed at $US646.15 per fine ounce, down $US1.15.
Newmont lost 7c to $5.71 and Lihir Gold fell 5c to $3.04.
However, Newcrest jumped 45c to $21.75.
Preliminary market turnover was 1.56 billion shares worth $5.38 billion.