Sydney, Sept 21, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - The share market retreated today as U.S. exposed firms fell on fresh worries about inflation in the world's biggest economy. Energy firms gained on a jump in oil prices.

Today the S&P/ASX 200 Index closed down 36 points to 6358, and is up 51 points on the week. On the futures market the SPI 200 shed 31 points.

Looking to US indices now, the Dow Jones industrial Index climbed 324 points over the four day trading week. The S&P 500 managed 35 points, the NASDAQ gained 52, and the 100 index lifted 32 points.

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

Video Link

http://abnnewswire.net/fnnlnk/9311L55A


Audio Link

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/DL653U66


Turning to company news now, Tap Oil says it's been awarded a 40 per cent stake and operatorship of a block of an onshore oil and gas field in Brunei. Tap Oil says the block has reserves of between 10-50 million barrels of oil, and in excess of several hundred billion cubic feet of gas. The oil and gas explorer says the block covers an area of about 3,100 square kilometers. Tap Oil is committing about $20 million over the next five years to appraise existing discoveries and exploration. Shares in Tap Oil ended the session 3.17% higher at $1.95, gaining 9.55% on the week.

And Mundo Minerals has posted a full year loss. The South American-focused gold explorer posted a loss of $1.92 million. Despite the result, chairman George Jones says the company has made significant progress as an emerging international gold production company. He says the key to the company's strategy will be the commencement of sustainable cash flow from March 2008 once initial production from the gold project in Brazil commences. Shares in Mundo Minerals ended the session 7.76% higher at 62 and-a-half cents, and gained 1.63 per cent on the week.

Taking a look at some of the week's main stories now, mining giant Rio Tinto extended its $44 billion offer for Canadian aluminium producer Alcan by a month. The company says it needs the extra time to gain regulatory approvals. Rio Tinto already has approval from US and Canadian competition regulators, but now needs clearances from the EU and Australia, which are both expected within the first two weeks of October. Foreign investment clearances are also needed from Canada, Australia, the United States and France. Shares in Rio Tinto ended the session 0.5% higher at $103.21, and are up 3.84% on the week.

And retail analysts say COLES Group is facing a dire outlook and a significant drop in profit growth is expected this year. After reporting little growth in its annual results this week, Coles said it was "inappropriate" to maintain its own revised profit estimate ? of about 960 million dollars - given its probable takeover by Wesfarmers. Investment bank Merrill Lynch downgraded its fiscal 2008 forecast by 16 per cent to 721 million dollars. The forecast for fiscal 2009 was also downgraded by 15 per cent. Other researchers also issued downgrades. Shares in the Coles Group ended the session 1.45% lower to close at $14.98, but are up 1.84% on the week. And now to today's best and worst performers, the best performing index was the Materials index gaining 16 points to 14,560, while the worst performing index was the Telecommunications index shedding 20 points to 1548.

Western Areas was the standout performer in the S&P/ASX top 200 today adding 7.61% to $4.95; Sino Gold Mining and Compass Resources also made solid gains.



At the other end of the index; SP Ausnet was the worst performing stock losing 6.72% to $1.25; Murchison Metals and Duet Group also finished lower. The Aussie dollar is currently fetching 86.98 U.S cents and is up just under 3 cents on the week.

Gold is trading at $737.30 U.S an ounce and gained $30.60 on the week's trading.

And finally, oil moved 13 cents weaker to $81.65 U.S a barrel and is up $2.55 on the week.

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

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>>> RIO TINTO LIMITED
>>> TAP OIL LIMITED
>>> COLES GROUP LIMITED
>>> MUNDO MINERALS LIMITED