Australian stocks: Telstra revamps units to appease watchdog

Among the telcos, Telstra nudged up two cents to $4.94 as chief executive Ziggy Switkowski said the creation of a new wholesale unit at Telstra would help address the concerns of the competition watchdog.

Optus-owner Singapore Telecommunications scraped off one cent to $1.86.

In the retail sector, Coles Myer was seven cents up at $10.01 and supermarket rival Woolworths slipped 18 cents to $14.75.

Among other stocks, dairy company National Foods rose seven cents to $5.86 as the dairy group stepped up its defence against Fonterra's takeover offer.

Construction firm Leighton Holdings climbed 28 cents to $11.50 after it was awarded a $524 million contract to build the North-West Transitway in Sydney.

Steel maker OneSteel edged up one cent to $2.58 after it said it expected to post a net profit of $45-55 million for the December half year, taking into account a slower-than-expected recovery in operations at its Whyalla blast furnace.

The top traded stock by volume was communications technology company Zylotech Ltd, with 88.59 million shares worth $267,028 changing hands, according to preliminary calculations.

Zylotech shares were steady at 0.3 of a cent.

Preliminary national turnover was 1.09 billion shares worth $2.48 billion, with 724 stocks up, 724 down and 404 unchanged.

- AAP