BHP

What can be termed as one of the biggest achievements, Rio Tinto has bagged a record 86 percent hike in iron ore contract prices. The hike includes freight premium with China's biggest steel maker, Boasteel. Shipping iron ore from China is cheaper than from Brazil. This has led to higher iron ore contract price between Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton against Rio de Janeiro based Vale.

AED Oil was the overall worst performing stock taking in a 21.14 percent decrease. The technical price chart above is for AED and shows a 10, 100 MA on a candlestick chart, each candle representing 3 trading days. It was a mixture of mining and metal exploration, aviation and resources companies who were among the worst performing stocks for the week 22 of 2008 on the Australian sharemarket: Lihir Gold (LHG), Macquarie Airports (MAP), BHP Billiton (BHP), AED Oil (AED), Minara Resources (MRE), St. Barbara (SBM).

As the Westpac's deal foresees counter bid from other banks, trading of bank stocks have plummeted over the last week. The Big Four banks have rallied and the five biggest players have touched their record high. The Westpac deal with St. George has renewed interest in bank stocks which are usually taken as safe haven. According to portfolio manager, Matthew Kidman from Wilson Asset Management, "For 10 years everyone has said that banks are a safe haven -- and they're definitely not that because they're highly geared and we've seen the share prices get thumped."