Qantas dominates a down day

The stockmarket pulled back from its record high yesterday, with Qantas going south after the $11.1 billion takeover bid for the airline crashed.
The ASX 200 index closed 31.3 points lower at 6304.4, while the All Ordinaries slipped 28.4 points to 6301.
However, both set new records during the day - the ASX 200 6341.1 and the All Ords 6333.8 points - before the fall.
Macquarie Equities client adviser David Halliday said the big miners and banks had dragged the market down.
"We had a two-speed market today: the BHPs, the Rios and the banks all provided a pretty big drag on the index, while news-specific things like PBL and the Alcan takeover gave it a boost," he said yesterday.
"We have the budget tonight, so the banks might have been a bit weaker on anticipation that the tax cuts might put upwards pressure on inflation.
"The net effect is a down day but it certainly wasn't all bad news."
Qantas opened at $5.22, bottomed out very early at $5.14 then retracked to close as it opened, at $5.22, down 16c, or 2.97 per cent, after Airline Partners Australia conceded defeat.
It was the most traded stock on the market, with 164 million shares changing hands, worth $858 million.
The market got off to a slow start despite a good lead from Wall Street overnight, the Dow Jones industrial average closing up 48.35 at a record of 13,312.97.
Locally, the big miners were weaker, with BHP Billiton dropping 38c to $31.18 and rival Rio Tinto slipping $1.68 to $89.70.
The big banks were weaker as well, with ANZ retreating 5c to $30.53, NAB dropping 23c to $44.32, Westpac shedding 12c to $27.20 and the Commonwealth dipping 32c to $53.95. St George fell 15c to $36.44.
The media sector was mixed, with News Corp gaining 6c to $28.96, its non-voting shares up 3c to $26.83, and Fairfax fell 2c to $5.11.
PBL surged $1.26 to $21.99 after the company said it would split into two separately listed companies to focus on gaming and media respectively.
Engineering and services company United Group retreated 28c to $16.50 despite the company securing $300 million of new work in water, power, transport and defence.
Coca-Cola Amatil shed 3c to $9.38 after it confirmed expectations of high single-digit earnings growth this year, due to a strong performance by its Australasian and Indonesian soft drink markets and its beer business, Pacific Beverages.
The retailers were mixed, with Coles giving up 2c to close at $17.68, Harvey Norman dipping 6c to $5.23 and Woolworths shedding 18c to finish at $27.59. David Jones was steady at $4.86.