Sydney, Oct 25, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - Aussie stocks have edged higher in patchy trading today after ANZ, the first of the major banks to report, announced below expectations while weaker base metal prices pressured top miner BHP Billiton.

A late rally on Wall Street was spurred by speculation of a cut in the U.S. discount rate and also helped to buoy sentiment in the local market, particularly for U.S exposed stocks like Westfield.

At Midday the S&P/ASX200 index has gained 22 points to 6,656 and on the futures market the SPI 200's up 16.

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

Video Link

http://abnnewswire.net/fnnlnk/1ZER7A99


Audio Link

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/K0S0S3ZP



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

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