Slow start but home like Empire Rose

The sharemarket closed at another high after a flat start to trade yesterday. The ASX 200 index came home like Empire Rose to end 23.5 points higher at 6677.8, beating last Wednesday's record close of 6659.9.
The benchmark also posted a fresh intra-day high of 6685.9, eclipsing yesterday's intra-day record of 6684.4.
The All Ordinaries also reached new heights, up 20.5 points to 6687.7, bettering the previous record close of 6667.6 points last Tuesday. It set a new intra-day high of 6695.9.
David Land, the chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said it had been an interesting session that ended strongly, after a weak start to the day's trading.
"That was driven by the largely lower commodities markets, particularly base metals, as well as the price of oil in trade overnight," Mr Land said.
"That really weighed on a number of the large commodities companies but, in some cases, we've seen a retracement of those early losses with BHP Billiton, which is still in negative territory, but it's at least well off its lows of the day.
"We've seen some very good gains for the finance sector and consumer staples have done well, particularly Woolworths."
The big miners were weaker. BHP Billiton shed 21c to close at $44.48 and Rio Tinto was $2.22 lower at $109.10.
In the energies, Woodside fell 20c to $51.98, Santos dipped 7c to $15.83 and Oil Search lost 6c to $4.24.
The big banks were all stronger. National Australia Bank was up 67c to $41.51, the Commonwealth was 53c higher at $57.88, Westpac lifted 39c to $29.71 and ANZ rose 34c to $31.20.
Gold was cheaper in Sydney yesterday. Newcrest shed 15c to $28.40, Newmont fell 7c to $5.02, Lihir Gold lost 11c to $3.89 and Sino Gold was off 11c to $7.21.
Shares in project the development and contracting group Leighton Holdings closed 60c higher to $56.80 after it received Foreign Investment Review Board approval to move above its 14.9 per cent holding in the contract mining and civil engineering company Macmahon Holdings. Macmahon's shares closed 7c higher at $1.75.
Shares in the resort operator MFS Living and Leisure ended 8c higher at 94c on news it had raised its distribution guidance to 12c for 2007-08 after cutting its fees.
Shares in Australia's largest listed food manufacturer, Goodman Fielder, closed up 2c at $2.34 after it said it would shut its bakery in Geelong and restructure its Mascot oils plant.
Shares in Transfield Services were steady at $2.16 on news it had purchased the New Zealand company McBreen Jenkins Construction for $20.7 million.
News Corp was up 9c to $27.35, its non-voters 16c higher at $25.55, PBL was 19c higher at $20.40 and Fairfax finished 3c stronger at $4.75. APN was up 6c to $5.35.
In retail, Woolworths was 77c stronger at $31.66, Coles lifted 9c to $15.73, David Jones was 6c higher at $5.07 and the third force grocer Metcash was up 5c to $4.60. Harvey Norman was down 8c to $5.95 and JB Hi-Fi was off 9c at $15.
Total turnover was 1.63 billion shares worth $6.01 billion, with 606 stocks up, 629 down and 353 unchanged.