7 Jan 2013

Aust shares dip as NZX 50 hits a high in thin trade

8:55 pm on 7 January 2013

Australia's share market slipped slightly at close as investors locked in earlier gains.

The All Ordinaries index shed 0.1% to 4,738 and the ASX 200 index was down six points to 4717, the ABC reports.

The day's action was confined to Whitehaven Coal, which saw its shares plunge after an anti-coal lobby group issued a hoax press release claiming that the ANZ had pulled $A1.2 billion from the Maules Creek project in New South Wales.

The news initially wiped $A300 million off the company's value before both Whitehaven and ANZ confirmed the release was false.

On this side of the Tasman, The NZX reported a thin trade of 25 million shares which left the NZX 50 benchmark index up 9.8 points (0.24%) at 4084.84.

This set a new high for the index since late 2007 - before the global financial crisis bit - as 10 stocks fell, 28 rose, and 12 were left unchanged.