SYDNEY - Thinly traded Australian stocks added 0.2 per cent yesterday, trailing Wall Street, as firmer financials offset profit-taking on retailer Woolworths after it unveiled robust sales and earnings guidance.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index rose 5.4 points to 3089 on below average volume worth A$1.4 billion ($1.58 billion), awaiting firm
evidence of profit growth as the local corporate reporting season kicked off.
US stocks rose on Friday, snapping a three-day losing streak after encouraging results from Microsoft.
"Although the US market rallied, attributable to Microsoft's nice words, it's not really helping the earnings outlook," said Rick Klusman, client adviser at Terrain Securities, adding that local media forecasts of a sluggish Australian earnings season did nothing to lift sentiment.
Shares in Australia's largest supermarket retailer, Woolworths, up more than 8 per cent in the past six months, fell 1.9 per cent to A$12.10 on profit-taking after it posted strong fourth-quarter sales data and nudged up its year-earnings forecast range.
Arch rival Coles Myer closed steady at A$7.42.
On the merger front, property investor Investa Property Group boosted its cash-and-scrip offer for Principal Office Fund (POF) by 3Ac a share to an implied value of A$1.58 a share.
Units in Investa, which already owns 21.06 per cent of POF, rose 1c to A$1.97, while POF ended flat at A$1.55.
AMP eased 0.4 per cent to A$5.04 after British newspapers reported that South Africa's biggest insurer, Old Mutual, was considering a bid for AMP's British assets.
Propping up the broader market, Westpac rose 1.2 per cent to A$16.30 and Insurance Australia Group rose 2.2 per cent to A$3.65.
Etrade Australia rose 3.6 per cent to 57Ac after it said its profit for the six months to the end of June were expected to double.
