US mortgage relief plan spurs market rally

The sharemarket finished the week higher, bolstered by a stronger US lead after news from the White House of mortgage relief for beleaguered subprime borrowers.
The benchmark ASX 200 index closed up 53.8 points, or 0.82 per cent, at 6654.7 and the All Ordinaries gained 53.5 points to 6714.
The gains on Wall Street came after US President George Bush announced overnight a mortgage relief package to help 1.2 million distressed American mortgagees.
A CMC markets senior dealer, Matt Lewis, said the second day of increases on the Australian bourse suggested a level of confidence was creeping back into the market.
"Traders are seemingly optimistic about US regulators' plan to limit subprime defaults," Mr Lewis said.
"This bodes well, with all the big four banks showing gains.
"Commonwealth Bank and Westpac faired the best, gaining around 2 per cent each."
Mr Lewis said traders could have a nervous wait over the weekend, with the US Federal Reserve meeting early next week to decide whether to continue cutting interest rates.
An ABN Amro Morgans adviser, Lisa Jarvis, said the gains on Friday came despite a sell-off just before the closing bell.
"There was a bit of a sell-off at the close, partly because the US futures were providing a negative lead in the run-in for the night.
"Rio Tinto rallied quite hard until [3.30pm] then came off a bit."
Rio Tinto finished up 74c at $145.48 and BHP Billiton closed 12c higher at $43.50.
Incitec Pivot struck the $100 mark, gaining $3.92 to $101.99.
Commonwealth Bank was up 32c to $60.69, National Australia Bank climbed 16c to $39.22, Westpac was up 63c to $28.93 and ANZ closed 36c higher to $28.48.
Gains in the price of crude oil overnight helped Woodside rally 63c to $48.33.
Coates Hire was steady at $6.53 after upgrading its earnings guidance in the days before its shareholders vote on a takeover bid.
Downer EDI rose 12c to $5.28. The company has sold its oil, gas and geothermal drilling business, Century Resources, to oilfield services company MB Holding, in a $US137.35 million ($172 million) deal.
Meanwhile, News Corp gained 57c to $24.97 after news that Rupert Murdoch had given son James an expanded role, positioning him as a likely successor.
The group's non-voting stock closed up 60c at $24.14.
Fairfax Media gained 4c to $4.81, while Ten Network rose 5c to $2.85 and Seven was up 35c to $13.95.
The media assets of the demerged Publishing & Broadcasting, now called Consolidated Media Holdings, rose 4c to $4.22 on a deferred settlement basis. The other PBL spin-off, Crown, closed 19c higher at $13.65.
Telstra finished up 2c to $4.71 and its instalment receipts also rose 2c to $3.17.
Retailer Wesfarmers finished up 31c to $43.31 but Woolworths lost 11c to $34.43.
Qantas climbed 14c to $5.78.
Coca-Cola Amatil rose 17c to $10.70. The company said it expected 10 to 11 per cent growth in net operating profit before significant items for the second half and full year, helped by its ability to recover increases in commodity costs.
The spot price of gold in Sydney closed at $US798.90 an ounce, up $US6.30 from Thursday's $US792.60 close. Goldminer Newcrest Mining rallied 40c to $32.92, Lihir Gold added 1c to $3.75 but Newmont lost 4c to $5.68.
The top traded stock was BMA Gold, with 146.2 million shares trading worth $7.2 million. The shares gained 1.5c to 5.5c.
Preliminary market turnover was 1.82 billion shares worth $5.62 billion.