Sydney, Aug 2, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - Australian shares rose this morning, recovering from an over 3 per cent slide yesterday, as investors rushed to pick up beaten down stocks such as BHP Billiton and banks.

At Midday the ASX200 index has gained 96 points to 6,037 and on the futures market the SPI 200's up 91.

In company news this hour, shares in Downer EDI dived this morning after announcing the company expects full year net profit to be $101.5 million, significantly lower than the previous guidance of between $157 and $160 million. The engineering contractor also said that managing director Stephen Gillies had agreed to step down, effective immediately. Downer said the result was largely due to commercial settlement disputes, higher costs and delays, a more conservative approach to contractual issues and an offset by a $33 million one-off second half tax credit. Downer shares are 16.12% lower at $5.88

The full report is available at the following video and audio links.

Video Link

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/XCDRQB50


Audio Link

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/36UM37KR

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>>> DOWNER EDI LIMITED
>>> GRD LIMITED
>>> TRANSFIELD SERVICES LIMITED