BHP buyback excites investors

The Australia sharemarket closed in record territory again yesterday, underpinned by a stellar performance from miner BHP Billiton.
The ASX200 index rose 29.3 points to 5899.8 and the All Ordinaries gained 22.4 points to 5870.9, both setting record closes after touching new intra-day highs.
The ASX200 broke through the 5900 point barrier for the first time as both indices surpassed the record levels achieved on Tuesday.
The ASX200 rose as high as 5909.9 during yesterday's session while the All Ords reached 5880.1.
At the close of day trading on the Sydney Futures Exchange, the March share price index contract was 17 points higher at 5869 on a volume of 15,350 contracts.
Austock Brokers senior client adviser Michael Heffernan said BHP Billiton was the dominant force in the market after it posted a $US6.17 billion ($7.96 billion) first-half profit and increased its share buyback program.
"It is a great day for BHP, it is the standout message coming from the market today," he said.
"BHP is leading by the length of the straight as far as being the dominant market mover, more than twice as big as the next biggest rise and that was by Coles.
"The key catalyst has been the buyback and it is a very attractive buyback with the capital component … there are big tax benefits there for people who can make use of them and I think that has stimulated big turnover."
The world's biggest miner plans to buy back a further $US10 billion in shares over the next 18 months, after increasing its capital management program to $US13 billion.
BHP shares gained $1.56, or almost 6 per cent, to $28.24, and topped turnover on the market with more than 96.5 million shares worth $2.7 billion traded.
Rio Tinto added 75c to $76.65.
The spot price of gold closed at $US655.65 an ounce in Sydney, up $US5.60 on Tuesday's local close.
Goldminer Newcrest gained 5c to $21.23 and Lihir Gold added 1c to $3.19.
The big banks were mixed, with the Commonwealth Bank adding 16c to $51.28, ANZ dropping 1c to $29.85, National Australia Bank shedding 21c to $41.07 and Westpac steady at $25.55.
Property group Stockland gained 12c to $8.75 after delivering a higher first-half net profit and announcing the acquisition of British property development and investment company Halladale Group.
In the media sector, Fairfax added 2c to $5.01 and News Corp 30c to $31.50, its non-voting shares gaining 30c to $29.92 ahead of the release of its first half results.
The James Packer-led PBL dipped 13c to $19.86, before an announcement that it had completed the recapitalisation of PBL Media.
The big retailers were stronger with Coles adding 37c to $14.76 and Woolworths putting on 28c to $25.06.
The energy sector was also mixed, with Santos gaining 5c to $9.32, Woodside slipping 69c to $36.95 and Oil Search dropping 5c to $3.61.
Market turnover reached 1.67 billion shares worth a total of $7.8 billion.
Some 582 stocks moved up, 662 dropped and 331 were unchanged.