Consumer staples set a better trend

The sharemarket posted strong and consistent gains yesterday with all sectors up on Friday's close.
Telecoms, the health care sector and consumer staple stocks were particularly strong.
ABN Amro Morgans private client adviser Kylie McDonald said those sectors had been rewarded by the market because of their defensive qualities.
"Consumer staples like Coke and Foster's are doing well, I suppose they're supported by yield and defensiveness," Ms McDonald said.
"It's been a strong gain but the volumes are light and it will leave advisers a little bewildered because we are awaiting more of a pullback which isn't happening."
The ASX 200 finished up 60.8 points at 5891.0, the All Ordinaries up 57.9 at 5868.1.
Ms McDonald said value would be restored to the market if it returned to 5600-5500.
"I'd like to see a bit of value re-emerge," she said.
In the resources sector, BHP Billiton was up 33c at $27.80, while Rio Tinto gained 34c to $74.84.
Woodside Petroleum was up 4c at $35.83 and Santos gained 11 cents to $9.82. Oil Search was up 4c to $3.42.
Among the major banks, NAB gained 41c to $40.39, the Commonwealth rose 25c to $50.10, Westpac was up 14c at $25.89 but the ANZ was off 1c at $29.04.
St George Bank was up 53c to $33.83, Bendigo up 16c at $13.66 and Bank of Queensland up 23c at $16.20.
Lihir Gold edged up 2c to $3.17 but Newcrest lost 14c to $21.18 and Newmont was down 12c to $5.38. Emperor, about 50c this time last year, is settling just under the 10c mark. It closed 8.9c, up a tenth of a cent.
In the health care sector, vaccine developer and blood plasma supplier CSL surged $2.50, or 3.23 per cent, to $80 even.
Among the consumer staples stocks, Coca-Cola Amatil enjoyed impressive growth of 48c, or 5.48 per cent, to $8.86, while the Foster's Group was also up, 21c to $6.60.
Lion Nathan did even better, closing up 25c at $8.77 after hitting an all-time high of $8.85.
The boutique brewers continued to struggle. Empire was down 1.5c to 23.5c, Oz Brewery down 1c to 12c and Gage Roads untraded, quoted at 30c/32c, well off its 40c issue price.
Little World, the Fremantle brewer, was down 2c to $1.62, still up on its November 2005 issue price of $1.
The media sector was mostly disappointing, with News Corp down 4c to $30.29 and its non voters also declining, by 18c to $28.72. Ten Network shed 1.5 per cent of its value, dropping 5c to $3.28.
Fairfax was steady at $4.79 but Seven Network was up 9c to $11.37.
Telstra enjoyed a rise of 9c to $4.33 and the partly paids jumped 10c to $2.88.
Among the big retailers, supermarket giant Woolworths gained 73c to $28.08 while Coles was steady at $15.72. Harvey Norman is back in the bosom of buyers, jumping 17c to $4.77. It was under $4 most of last year.
Nervous hedge funds drove the Qantas price down 8c to $5.16, making it the most traded by value for the day, 70 million shares worth a total of $363 million going through.
National total market turnover was 1.42 billion shares at a value of $4.45 billion, with 628 shares closing higher, 492 lower and 342 unchanged.