Aussie market gives back most early gains

MELBOURNE - The Australian share market finish flat after losing much of its early gains, wityh National Australia Bank's move to buy the local and New Zealand assets of AXA Asia Pacific Holdings Ltd a highlight.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed up 8.4 points, or 0.18 per cent, at 4,670.3 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index gained 13.5 points, or 0.29 per cent, to 4,689.6 points.

On the Sydney Futures Exchange at 1615 AEDT, the December share price index contract was 34 points higher at 4,688 on 14,825 contracts.

Division director at Macquarie Private Wealth, Lucinda Chan, said the NAB deal with AXA Asia Pacific Holdings and news from Woodside Petroleum about its capital raising pulled the market lower after early rises.

Under the plans NAB would team up with AXA APH's majority shareholder, France's AXA SA, to buy the target for about $13.29 billion.

The move trumped AMP Ltd's plan to become the nation's biggest superannuation and retirement provider.

NAB resumed trading at 1500 AEDT after a trading halt, and finished down $1.35, or 4.65 per cent, to $26.65.

AMP gained 25 cents, or 4.1 per cent, to $6.35.

Woodside Petroleum, which had been in a trading halt since December 14, resumed trading on Thursday and fell 8.8 cents, to $47.60.

Woodside said it had generated $1.7 billion in commitments in the institutional component of a recent capital raising.

"NAB is a very large chunk of the index, and so is Woodside," Ms Chan said.

Other financial stocks mostly finished lower, with shares in Commonwealth Bank off 59 cents to $52.08, Westpac down 25 cents to $23.35 and Macquarie Group $1.20 weaker at $46.35.

ANZ bucked the trend to finish up eight cents at $21.58.

The big miners rose, with BHP Billiton up 36 cents to $41.41 and rival Rio Tinto gaining 85 cents to $71.65.

Gold producers also were mostly stronger as the price of the precious metal continued to climb.

Lihir rose four cents to $3.27, Newmont put on two cents to $5.60 but Newcrest lost 16 cent to $35.25.

At 1632 AEDT the local spot price of gold was US$1,131.80 per fine ounce, up US$8.02 from Wednesday's closing price of US$1,123.78.

Despite soaring world oil prices the energy sector slipped lower, with Oil Search falling one cent to $5.68 and gas giant Santos off one cent to $13.86 and Origin Energy down eight cents to $16.04.

Media stocks were mostly stronger and News Corp built on Wednesday's gains, finishing up 54 cents to $17.44 and the company's non-voting scrip increased 52 cents to $14.89.

Fairfax Media put on 2.5 cents to $1.625, while Consolidated Media was steady at $3.03.

Ms Chan said increasing strength of the US dollar had helped News Corp's share price because a lot of its funds were held in offshore currencies.

"Telstra is beginning to strengthen, I guess because of the new things Telstra is going to be doing with the NBN (national broadband network)," Ms Chan said.

Shares in Telstra finished the day five cents stronger at $3.55.

NAB news sees Aust stocks finish flat - 3 Melbourne

Fastfood company Domino's Pizza Enterprises finished flat at $4.84 after saying it expects a 35 per cent increase in first half profit.

Airport owner and operator MAp Airports increased its stake in Brussels Airport in Belgium, and its securities rose one cent to $2.86.

The retailers were mixed, and Coles owner Wesfarmers fell 45 cents to $29.20 while Woolworths was off 25 cents to $26.85.

Among the up-market retailers Myer fell three cents to $3.74 and rival David Jones gained 11 cents to $5.44.

Harvey Norman put on one cent to $4.24.

At 1649 AEDT the top-traded stock by volume was Monitor Energy, with 300 million shares worth $2.54 million changing hands.

Its shares were down 0.2 cents, or 20 per cent, at 0.8 cents.

Preliminary national turnover was $3.0 billion shares worth $10.3 billion, with 564 stocks up, 439 down and 368 unchanged.

- AAP