Sydney, July 2, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - The Australian Share Market fell slightly today. Lingering worries about the U.S. subprime mortgage market hurt banking stocks.

The ASX 200 Index closed down 12 points to 6263, and on the futures market the SPI 200 lifted 17 points.

Turning to company news now, the Coles Group has agreed to a $22 billion takeover offer from Wesfarmers, in what is the largest takeover in Australia's corporate history. Wesfarmers is offering $4 in cash and just under point 3 of its own shares for each Coles share. The offer values each Coles share at $17.25, including a final dividend of 25 cents. Michael Heffernan from Austock says he thinks its certainly a good price for Coles shareholders considering where the share price has been in the past. The deal is expected to be completed by October. Shares in the Coles Group are in a trading halt but last traded at $16.12.

Multiplex has won a deal to develop three hospitals in the UK. The construction company will build a 612-bed acute hospital, a 102-bed mental health unit, and a 34-bed integrated care centre all worth just over $803 million. Multiplex has been waiting on this decision since March when it was selected as the preferred bidder for the project. Multiplex is expected to be taken over this year by Brookfield Asset Management in a deal set to be worth around $4.3 billion. Shares in Multiplex closed 0.2% higher at $4.93.

In other news today, shares in Southern Cross Broadcasting were also placed on a trading halt. A short time before that, Macquarie Media Group AND Fairfax Media were also both placed on trading halts. Macquarie Media did not say whether the trading halts were linked.

Stockland says it's acquired three new shopping centres in New South Wales and Victoria, and a parcel of land for a total of $100 million.

AGL says it will conduct a study that could see earlier commercialisation of its liquefied natural gas resources in Papua New Guinea.

The ANZ bank has increased its presence in the pacific with the purchase of a strategic community bank in GUAM. The bank didn't disclose the value of the purchase.

Now to today's best and worst performers, the Health Care index was the best performing index rose 114 points to 8,512 and at the other end of the market the Financials Excluding Property index shed 46 points to 7,291.

Compass Resources was the best performer in the ASX top 200 today gaining 9.07% to $4.57; Bunnings Warehouse and Roc Oil outperformed as well.

Crane Group was the worst performing stock today shedding 3.97% to $16.20; Australian Infrastructure Fund and Great Southern Plantations also fell well into the red.

In today's small-cap movers, shares in Territory Resources were hit hard as they came out of a trading halt today. It appears investors weren't too keen on company's decision to takeover Consolidated Minerals. Territory is competing with Pallinghurst for the deal.

Gold is currently trading at $650.60 US an ounce and light crude is 22 cents weaker at $70.46 US a barrel.


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

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