Bidding barrage spurs market highs

The sharemarket surged to new highs yesterday thanks to corporate activity, generally strong prices for commodities and belief that the United States economy is in reasonable shape.
Austock senior client adviser Michael Heffernan said takeover activity involving retailer Coles, construction materials firm Rinker Group, Qantas Airways and various mining companies was firing the local market.
"There's a fair bit of excitement about the place now you've got the Coles business going on … there's a bit of infectiousness going on there," Mr Heffernan said.
"When you couple that with resources stocks galloping along, that's the ingredients for a market starting to catch on fire."
Recent strong jobs data in the US had also alleviated some concerns that the US economy was going into recession.
"There's a lot of positives out there," Mr Heffernan said.
The ASX 200 rose 75.9 points, or 1.25 per cent, to a record closing high of 6153.0; the previous record of 6097.2 was last Wednesday. The All Ordinaries also jumped to a new closing peak of 6139.1, up 75.1 points.
Both indices also set new intraday highs.
Rinker lifted 33c to $18.81 after Mexican cement group Cemex lifted its takeover offer for the Australian construction materials provider by 22 per cent to $US15.85 ($19.41), valuing the target at almost $18 billion.
Coles jumped 36c to $17.33 as US private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts confirmed it was still in the running to buy the retailer.
On Wall Street the previous night, the Dow Jones industrial average finished 8.94 points higher at 12,569.14 as news of investments in the railroad sector by billionaire investor Warren Buffett and strong jobs data offset worries about earnings and bad home loans.
In the resources sector here, BHP Billiton rose 15c to $30.48 despite California knocking back its proposed LNG terminal off Malibu, and Rio Tinto strengthened $1.45 to $81.78.
Gloucester Coal soared $1.04 to $4.85 as Xstrata Coal, the world's largest producer of export thermal coal, launched a $391 million bid for it.
Nickel miner LionOre Mining gained 10c to $20.19 after LionOre recommended Xstrata's $US4 billion takeover bid.
Oil and gas producer Woodside Petroleum improved 8c to $39.12 but Santos dipped the same amount to $10.27. Oil Search lost 1c to $3.50.
Among the major banks, the National rose 74c to $41.99, Westpac 26c to $26.40, the Commonwealth 16c to $51.29, and the ANZ 42c to $29.97.
St George was up 51c to $34.40 and Bendigo Bank fell 3c to $16.80 even after ex-directors of the bank said Bank of Queensland's bid, valued yesterday at about $18.85, was too low. BoQ was up 25c to $17.85.