Shares hit record in choppy trading

SHARES managed to retain their gains to hit new closing highs yesterday, despite a day of choppy trading.
The sharemarket bucked a positive lead from Wall St to open lower, as falls in many base metals prices took their toll on the mining sector.
The ASX 200 closed up 25 points at a new high of 6397, while the All Ordinaries was 27.7 higher at a record 6421.1.
Aequs Securities institutional dealer Ric Klusman said a large surplus of cash in the market helped the bourse to modest gains.
"The distributions from all the property trusts are hitting the market, plus a major amount of superannuation, plus the tax benefits on the super," Mr Klusman said.
He said Telstra, the Commonwealth Bank and the major mining houses had weighed on the market.
BHP Billiton ended 37c lower at $34.55 while Rio Tinto dropped 66c to $100.49.
"The area that has benefited most is the property trusts area as they come up for their distributions … and also the slowing housing market in the US indicating that maybe there will be no pressure on interest rates in the US," Mr Klusman said.
"Generally I would expect our market to remain reasonably firm coming up to the 30th of June."
Goldminers were lower, with Newcrest reversing 43c to $23.58 and Lihir tumbling 3c to $3.13.
Oils were pretty ordinary, Woodside rising 35c to $47.20, Santos 4c to $14.48 and Oil Search a penny to $4.28.
Banks were mixed. The Commonwealth fell 24c to $55.16 and Westpac shed 8c to $25.84. NAB rose 21c to $41.44 and ANZ climbed 13c to $29.55.
Telecommunications giant Telstra slipped 4c to $4.72, while national carrier Qantas fell 2c to $5.73.
Wall Street had been positive on Tuesday night, with stocks rising as a fall in bond yields kept interest rate worries at bay even though concerns emerged over consumer spending. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 22.44 to 13,635.42.
The apparently unsellable Ten Network lost another 7c to $2.87, after posting a 7.1 per cent decline in nine-month earnings.
Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd fell 9c to $19.20 while Fairfax Media rose 5c to $4.88. News Corp advanced 6c to $28.16 and its non-voters were up 16c to $26.18. APN was up 16c to $5.94.
In the retail sector, Woolworths gained 3c to $27.65 while Coles lost 3c to $16.90 and David Jones slipped 1c to $5.36.
The most traded stock was uranium explorer Western Metals, on no apparent news, with 52.99 million shares worth $13.04 million changing hands. It ended 3.5c higher at 26c.
Market turnover was 2.1 billion shares worth $7.3 billion, with 742 companies higher, 582 lower and 380 unchanged.