Sharemarket and Market Trading News

Read the latest Australian sharemarket trading and Australian Business news.

At 7am (AEDT), the local unit was trading at US74.09¢, above Tuesday's close of US73.77¢. Overnight it reached a low of US73.39¢ and a high of US74.11¢.

Westpac's senior currency strategist in New York, Richard Franulovich, said the Australian dollar pushed higher overnight as the US dollar fell across the board.

A weaker than expected US manufacturing report drove the initial move lower in the US currency.

World oil prices surged to the highest levels in almost three months after Russia's energy row with neighbour Ukraine disrupted gas supplies across Europe, hit also by cold weather.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February, rocketed $US1.96 to $US63 per barrel in pit deals, compared with Friday's close before the long New Year holiday weekend.

Media and gambling magnate Kerry Packer was making more than $1 million a day in profits in the final year of his life, corporate documents show.

Kerry Packer earned $393 million in the past financial year in profits from private investments in property, plastics, chemicals and cattle, according to financial statements filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

The figures, published in newspaper reports, show the 68-year-old Packer made an average $7.8 million a week in the past year, largely underpinned by some 258 million PBL shares.

The Australian dollar opened weaker on Friday as negative sentiment from the New Zealand unit spilled over into local currency trade.

At 7am (AEDT), the local currency was trading at US73.12¢, below Thursday's close of US73.27¢.

During overnight trade, it hit a high of US73.34¢ and a low of US73.01¢.

National Australia Bank currency strategist John Kyriakopoulos said the local currency failed to cash in on a weaker US dollar, which fell against the major currencies.

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Australia's third richest man, Richard Pratt, colluded in a cardboard cartel that could cost him up to $427 million in penalties, documents submitted to the Federal Court say.

The billionaire philanthropist and doyen of entrepreneurial Australia was named yesterday in a statement of claims lodged by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

The document alleges 14 separate incidents of cartel behaviour, including price-fixing, between Mr Pratt's Visy cardboard empire and its business rival, Amcor.

Shares of General Motors fell to an 18-year low after Toyota unveiled production plans for 2006, increasing fears that GM will be toppled by its Japanese rival as the world's largest automaker.

Toyota said it plans to make a record 9.06 million cars in 2006, just shy of the 9.15 million cars and trucks that some analysts expect GM to build next year.

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