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MELBOURNE - A last-minute fall left the Australian Stock Exchange finishing flat today as a lack of direction from offshore and investors taking profits took its toll.
At the 1615 AEST close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index gave back 1.6 points to close at 6151.4 after touching a record high of 6176.9 during the day.
The all ordinaries finished flat at 6136.1, but had entered record territory with an intra-day high of 6159.1.
On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the June share price index contract rose seven points to 6,184 on a volume of 17,735 contracts.
Aequs Securities institutional dealer Ric Klusman said it had been an uninspiring day with no solid leads from overseas to give our market direction.
"The market started very firm, dipped into negative territory and then closed flat," Mr Klusman said.
"Predominantly, offshore markets were not giving any leads and the US futures market is indicating a fall of 10 to 20 points."
He said that with takeover activity in the market centring around Coles and Qantas amounting to about A$40 billion, punters don't want to sell but do want to take some profits off the table.
"It was a lacklustre day and we're all waiting to see what happens in the US tonight," Mr Klusman said.
Mr Klusman said the strengthening Australian dollar, which was at 17-year high of more than 82 US cents, was starting to put pressure on the resources sector.
"Miners like BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto are pretty good at their hedging strategies and have got mines all over the world, but you would be concerned if are a miner only producing in Australia," he said.
BHP Billiton added 12 cents to A$30.60 and Rio improved A$1.72 to A$83.50.
Zinifex slipped eight cents to A$16.01 while oil and gas producer Woodside lost 24 cents to A$38.88.
The major banks were mixed, with National Australia bank picking up 24 cents to A$42.23 and ANZ 18 cents to A$30.15.
But Commonwealth Bank of Australia gave up nine cents to A$51.20 and Westpac dipped five cents to A$26.35.
Australia's fifth-biggest bank St George climbed 40 cents to A$34.80.
A sweetened A$18 billion takeover bid for Rinker Group from Mexican cement giant Cemex is likely to succeed, analysts say.
In a note to clients, investment bank Credit Suisse said the offer, which was A$3.65 above Cemex's first attempt and equivalent to A$19.41 a share, was likely to succeed.
Rinker firmed one cent to A$18.82 today.
The retail sector took a breather as the bidders lining up to buy Coles did some stock-taking.
The takeover target firmed five cents to A$17.38 but suitor Wesfarmers shed 13 cents to A$39.01 and Woolworths, which could end up with Coles' divisions such as Officeworks and Target, retreated 17 cents to A$27.81.
Just Group, which today could give the market no reason for new-found strength in its share price, added two cents to A$4.60.
The media sector was in reverse with News Corp losing 13 cents to A$30.36 and its non-voting scrip weakening 15 cents to A$28.44.
Fairfax slipped three cents to A$5.03.
Telstra shaved off four cents to A$4.81 as did its instalment receipts, to A$3.35.
At 1647 AEST, the spot price of gold in Sydney gained 60 US cents to US$676.90 per fine ounce.
The gold miners were all down, with Lihir falling two cents to A$3.29, Newcrest handed back 46 cents to A$23.73 and Newmont was trimmed six cents to A$5.27.
Mineral industry player Boart Longyear was the most traded stock by volume, with 83.88 million shares worth A$160.2 million traded.
Its share price rose seven cents to A$1.94.
Preliminary market turnover was 1.88 billion shares worth A$6.4 billion, with 646 companies trading higher, 602 lower and 358 unchanged.
- AAP