Market At Midday, (ASX: GRD), (ASX: CGJ)

Sydney, June 27, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - Australian shares have again moved into the red. A negative lead from Wall Street overnight is hurting overall sentiment, and weaker oil and metal prices are weighing on resource firms.

At Midday the ASX200 index has fallen 32 points to 6,277 and on the futures market the SPI 200's down 46.

In company news this hour? GRD says it's received an incomplete offer from maintenance company Transfield Services. The offer values GRD at $529 million and contains an indicative purchase price of between $2.70 and $2.75 per share. Transfield says it has not yet been granted access to GRD?s records to commence the due diligence process. GRD says its directors are considering the proposal and will respond soon. GRD shares are 17.72% higher at $2.79.

Blackstone Group has pulled out of a consortium of three firms bidding for the Coles Group. Three other members of the original consortium of six pulled out in May with issues about the costs involved in turning around Australia?s second largest supermarket retailer. The remaining firms now include TPG and the CARLYLE Group. Blackstone has so far declined to comment this morning. Coles has set a deadline for binding offers of June 30. Shares in the Coles Group fell 0.79% to $16.39.

Turning now to market indices...The best performing index this morning is the Utilities Index gaining 12 points to 7,589. Shares in Geodynamics were strong advancing 12.36% to $2. Duet Group and SP Austnet have also posted gains.

At the other end of the market, the Health Care Index is the worst performing index by percentage and has tumbled 120 points to 8,429. CSL has fallen 2.3% to $88.10. Ansell and Cochlear have also suffered losses.

And now let's take a look at regional markets. In Tokyo, the Nikkei is 112 points lower and in New Zealand the NZSX50 is down by 31.

Gold is currently trading at $642.90 U.S an ounce and one Australian dollar's buying 84.41 U.S cents.

Source: Finance News Network © 2007 http://www.finnewsnetwork.com.au

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