Total Investor

Australian equities finished the day higher after coming off peaks earlier in the day. The Australian dollar held

above US$1.06, fuelled by both Aussie pride from the holiday as well as the Fed’s hinting of a further round of

quantitative easing and a commitment to hold interest rates near zero until 2014. Gold finished lower at $1,719/oz while

WTI crude finished higher at $99.9/bbl.

Materials led the market with Major Miners – BHP Billiton (A$37.66, +0.6%), Fortescue Metals (A$5.06, +4.1%),

Newcrest (A$34.40, +3.8%), Rio Tinto (A$69.78, +2.1%) – all in the black. Gold was hot as yellow metal producers-

Medusa (A$5.85, +5.4%), Resolute (A$2.04, +6.5%), Perseus (A$2.90, +5.1%) – booked gains on bullishness born of

confidence from the Fed. Integra (A$0.605, +4.3%) posted strong fourth quarter financials despite a tiny decline in

production. Woodside Petroleum (A$34.48, +1.5%) confirmed that it was in discussions to sell a part of its Browse LNG

stake but said that it intends to retain operatorship of the project.

Financials fluctuated with Major Banks- ANZ (A$21.50, +0.4%), Commonwealth Bank (A$51.16, +0.3%), Westpac

(A$21.29, 0.0%) – mostly flat. National Australia Bank (A$24.08, -0.5%) trailed after it announced an A$191 million

transfer to two cover a hole in the pension fund of two of its UK banks. This comes after an A$600 million injection to

UK bank Clydesdale on January 12 of this year.

ResMed Inc. (A$2.73, +7.5%) jumped on announcement of record fourth quarter profits with revenue up 9% and

net income up 8% on the December 2010 quarter. Skywest Airlines announced the delivery of a new aircraft as part of

its recently announced alliance with Virgin Blue (A$0.32, +1.6%), which rose on the news. Aurora Oil & Gas

(A$3.01, unch) was a loser from a proposed debt raising of US$200 million to fund development of its Eagle Ford shale

basin as well as potential future acquisitions. Mungana Goldmines (A$0.55, +10.0%) was a top gainer for the day.

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