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Reuters Australia
Australia shares rise 0.3 pct; Westfield, Rio climb
Wednesday June 24, 07:28 PM
(Adds fund manager, dealer comments)
By Sonali Paul
MELBOURNE, June 24 (Reuters) - Australian shares edged back into positive ground to end up 0.3 percent on Wednesday, as shopping mall group Westfield (ASX: WDC.ax) jumped, confirming a view that investors have regained confidence in property sector.
On a day with no major news to move the market, the biggest feature was buying up of rights RIOR.AX to a $15.2 billion sale of cheap shares by the market's second-largest miner, Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX: RIO.ax) on the last day of trading in the rights.
Investment managers' view of the market has improved sharply over the past quarter, Russell Investments found in a survey, with 26 of 41 respondents saying they had positive expectations for the share market in the next 12 months.
On real estate investment trusts, the survey found investment managers suddenly having become more enthusiastic after shunning the sector for years.
"They hated the sector on the way up and hated it when it was getting beaten down, but now that they're busted we're starting to see some interest," said Andrew Pease, investment strategist at Russell Investments.
For more views on A-REIT prospects, see [ID:nSP131002].
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 picked up 10.1 points to end at 3,807.0, according to the latest data, following a slide to a near four-week closing low on Tuesday.
New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index .NZ50 fell 0.8 percent to 2,739.8.
The Australian market was in a holding pattern, hovering on either side of unchanged all day, with most investors awaiting the outcome of the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates tonight.
While top miner BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP.ax) , the market's heaviest-weighted stock, slipped 0.2 percent to A$33.73, rival Rio Tinto rose 2 percent to A$49.60, with investors betting it will pick up steam after its rights stopped trading on Wednesday.
"This could be a foretaste of what's going to happen over the next few days," said Michael Heffernan, strategist at Austock Securities, said of Rio Tinto's shares.
Rio's share sale is being priced at a massively discounted A$28.29. Rights to the offer jumped 3.8 percent to A$21.10 as trading in them ended.
The rights had slumped from more than A$30 last week, when they first started trading, driven by holders of Rio's ADRs who were not entitled to the right, according to CMC Markets.
Westfield Group jumped 4.9 percent to A$11.07, while GPT Group (ASX: GPT.ax) rose 5.3 percent to A$0.50.
Top residential developer Stockland Group (ASX: SGP.ax) fell 1.3 percent to A$2.96 as it traded without rights to its dividends.
Others trading without rights to their distributions fell much more, with Macquarie Airports (ASX: MAP.ax) off 8.3 percent and Macquarie Infrastructure (ASX: MIG.ax) down 7.1 percent.
The market's biggest loser was Linc Energy LNC.AX, which lost 8.7 percent to A$1.58, after it ended talks to sell some coal assets to China's Yanzhou Coal and instead appointed UBS to advise on a sale of the assets. [ID:nSYD60146]. (Editing by Denny Thomas)
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