Sharemarket hitches its wagon to BHP's star

The sharemarket reached new highs on Friday, boosted by global mining group BHP Billiton and the big banks, and oil and gold stocks.
CMC Markets senior dealer James Foulsham said the market was strong.
"BHP and the Commonwealth Bank have been the two biggest-weighing stocks in the index," he said.
"With BHP, it was the ex-date for the buyback entitlement yesterday so there's been a bit of rallying on the back of that.
"BHP has been the stock that's pushed the market up for the week."
BHP earlier this week unveiled the biggest half-year profit in Australian corporate history and announced a $US10 billion ($12.9 billion) share buyback program.
At the Friday close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 27.7 points at a record closing and intraday high of 5927.2, surpassing the previous closing record of 5899.8 set on Wednesday, and the previous intraday high of 5909.9, set on the same day.
The All Ordinaries was up 26.4 points at a new record closing and intraday high of 5899.3, beating the 5872.9 set on Thursday and the intraday peak of 5880.5, also set that day.
At the close of the Sydney Futures Exchange, the March share price index contract rose 35 points to 5906, on a volume of 14,063, according to preliminary figures.
But most eyes were on the ASX, where BHP Billiton rose 39c to $28.06 on the ASX while Rio Tinto fell 28c to $75.60.
Uranium producer Energy Resources of Australia climbed $1.16 to $22.61.
Higher oil prices helped push oil and gas producer Woodside Petroleum up 28c to $36.81, and Santos jumped 40c to $9.91.
Among gold stocks, Newmont added 13c to $5.84, Newcrest 46c to $22.06 and Lihir 8c to $3.19.
At the nominal close in Sydney, the price of gold was $US658.60 per fine ounce, up $US5.55 on Thursday's close.
In banking, Commonwealth Bank lifted 30c to $51.20, National Australia Bank 16c to $41.18, ANZ 11c to $29.65 and Westpac 1c to $25.51.
QBE Insurance Group dipped 1c to $30.18 as it took a 14.9 per cent stake in broker Austbrokers Holdings but said it was not planning a takeover.

In media, West Australian Newspapers was steady at $13.65 after it delivered a record first-half profit and forecast strong trading conditions to continue.
Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd rose 9c to $20.44 and Fairfax 6c to $5.03.
News Corp lifted 42c to $32.60 and its non-voting stock 35c to $30.74.
Telecommunications group Telstra ended up 1c to $4.39 as it pulled out of the bidding for Telecom Corp of New Zealand Ltd's Yellow Pages unit, saying the asking price for the directories business was too high.
Optus owner Singapore Telecommunications also rose 1c, to $2.86.
Retailer Coles Group jumped 28c to $14.93 and Woolworths was up 32c at $25.75.
Among other stocks, Qantas rose 2c to $5.37 as Singaporean low-cost carrier Tiger Airways promised bargain basement fares if it was permitted to enter the domestic market.
Property Group Stockland was in a trading halt as it acquired the largest privately owned operator in the Australian retirement market for $329 million. Stockland last traded at $8.85.
The top traded stock by volume was IT provider CommodiTel, with 70.05 million shares worth $1.5 million changing hands. Its stock was steady at 2c.
National turnover was 1.66 billion shares worth $5.5 billion, with 717 stocks up, 523 down and 328 unchanged.
Agencies
FRIDAY'S MOVES Rises 717 Falls 523 Steady 328
Mar SPI 5908.0 +37.0
ASX 200 5927.2 +27.7
Financials 7112.2 +12.4
Industrials 6670.6 +23.4
Energy 12281.7 +179.3
Volume Value 1.664bn 5.497bn
MONEY $A/US¢78.02-0.09
TWI64.4steady
90-day bank bills6.388+0.018
3-yr bonds (Aug '08)6.110-0.033
10-yr bonds (Apr '15)5.805-0.043