Sydney, Sept 14, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - The share market finished the week on a high note, closing at a seven week high. Macquarie Bank led the market higher.

Today the S&P/ASX 200 Index closed up 76 points to 6307, and is up 28 points on the week. On the futures market the SPI 200 rose 43 points.

Looking to US indices now, the Dow Jones industrial Index climbed 312 points over the four day trading week. The S&P 500 managed 30 points, the NASDAQ gained 35, and the 100 index lifted 40 points.

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

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Turning to company news now, the relationship between JB Hi-Fi and ThinkSmart is reportedly booming. It comes as both parties ditched the termination by convenience clause from their operating agreement. The clause made it possible for both parties to terminate the agreement after 24 months but since the agreement was signed, the businesses have rapidly expanded their relationship. The JB Hi-Fi chief executive says ThinkSmart has been a great addition to the company's growth and provides a strong value proposition for both customers and shareholders. Shares in JB Hi-Fi ended the session 0.15% lower at $13.30, losing 0.37% on the week.

And Telecom NZ's chief operating officer, Kevin Kenrick, has quit. Fund manager Craig Brown says Mr Kenrick had done a very good job at Telecom, first growing its Xtra business and then regaining market share in the mobile business. It follows the departure of the chief financial officer, with more resignations expected as new chief executive Paul Reynolds looks to secure his own team of executives. Telecom says it will begin its search for a replacement chief operating officer early next month. Shares in Telecom New Zealand ended the session 0.81% lower at $3.69, but gained 0.54 per cent on the week.

Taking a look at some of the week's main stories now, Wesfarmers took the Coles deal buy the horns and sent divisional chief Keith Gordon to Melbourne to thrash out the details of the proposed Coles takeover. Mr Gordon has been charged with the responsibility for planning and implementing the integration of the Wesfarmers and Coles business groups. Meanwhile, an independent expert examining the deal says the Wesfarmers offer was in shareholders' best interests even though it's below fair value. According to Reuters, the expert valued Coles at between $16.21 and $18.23 a share well above Wesfarmers offer of around $14.87 to $15.44. Coles is due to announce its full year results next week, but has already flagged sluggish growth as it loses market share to rival Woolworths. Shares in Wesfarmers ended the session 1.56% higher at $39.15, but are up 1.56% on the week. Shares in the Coles Group ended the session 1.38% higher at $14.71, and are up 0.96% on the week.

And Symbion shareholders have said no to a deal with Healthscope. The $2.9 billion deal was only just defeated with 73.9 per cent of the votes going in favour of the proposed takeover 75 per cent acceptance was required. Symbions major shareholder, Primary Healthcare, was in fact successful in its attempt to use its majority stake holding to block the deal. Symbion's chief, Paul McClintok, has confirmed however that the company will now look at other ways to implement the merger. Shares in Symbion Health ended the session 1.2% higher to close at $4.20, but are down 2.33% on the week.

And now to today's best and worst performers, all indices were up today. The best performing index was the Telecommunications index gaining 29 points to 1579, while the index making the least amount of gain was the Consumer Discretionary index added 14 points to 2719.

Commander Communications was the standout performer in the S&P/ASX top 200 today adding 7.22% to 52 cents; Centennial Coal and Mt Gibson Iron also made solid gains.

At the other end of the index; Sino Gold was the worst performing stock losing 3.59% to $5.90; Duet Group and Tishman Speyer also finished lower.

The Aussie dollar is currently fetching 84 U.S cents and is up more than a cent on the week.

Gold is trading at $705.50 U.S an ounce and gained $5 on the week's trading.

And finally, oil moved 42 cents weaker to $79.67 U.S a barrel and is up $2.96 on the week.

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

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