Sydney, Sept 27, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - The share market rose to a fresh record high today with the financial sector making most of the headway. Meanwhile RAMS Home Loans took another hit after being downgraded by a leading broker more on that later.

To the markets now, the S&P/ASX 200 Index closed up 57 points to 6538, and on the futures market the SPI 200 up 30 points.

In economic news, job vacancies have reached a record high. Job vacancies rose by 11.9 per cent in the year to August. Commsec economist Martin Arnold says this means the unemployment rate is now set to fall below 4 per cent.

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

Video Link

http://abnnewswire.net/fnnlnk/7G2J1KJP


Audio Link

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/Y3UUC642


In company news, BHP Billiton says it's looking to double the size of its railway in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It's all part of a 22.85 billion dollar expansion of the division. Fairfax is reporting that BHP is exploring the potential of increasing the 426 kilometre railway line from Port Headland to Newman as part of the planned expansion. As it stands, trains are transporting ore from Newman to Port Headland and returning empty on a single line. The world's largest miner produced around 92 million tonnes of iron ore from its operations in the Pilbara in fiscal 2007. Shares in BHP closed 0.83% higher at $43.52.

And forestry products firm Gunns has downgraded its annual net profit for 2006/2007 by $13.5 million to $74.5 million after reviewing capital expenditure figures. It came after Gunns reviewed the nature of specific costs associated with its proposed mill and the certainty of the project progressing. On August 30 the company posted an annual profit of $88 million. Gunns said this latest adjustment has no effect on cash flows. Shares in Gunns closed 1.05% lower at $2.84.

In other news today, Clancy Exploration today announced plans to commence a 25,000 metre drilling campaign in November this year. The program will continue for six months. The company also announced that it had secured a multi-purpose drilling rig from Techdrill Services, and provided updates on Induced Polarisation surveys.

RAMS Home Loans fell today after Merrill Lynch cut its rating on the firm from buy to neutral. The investment firm said higher funding costs would slice RAMS' earnings by 8 per cent in fiscal 2009.

Energy Resources of Australia is extending mining at its Ranger uranium mine in the Northern Territory until 2012.

And the Commonwealth Bank says it will open its doors to customers on Sundays at selected branches from October 14 in Victoria, South Australia and Queensland.

Now to today's best and worst performers, the best performing index was the Financials excluding Property index gaining 107 points to 7447, while the worst performing index was the Property index shedding 15 points to 2463.

Queensland Gas Company was the best performer in the S&P/ASX top 200 lifting 8.44% to $2.57; Energy Resources and Paladin Resources also advanced.

Centro Retail Group was the worst performing stock today shedding 4.93% to $1.64; Nufarm and G.U.D. Holdings also lost investor support.

To commodities now, gold is currently trading at $730.25 US an ounce and light crude is 85 cents firmer at $81.15 US a barrel.

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

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