Sharemarket and Market Trading News

The Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) will strengthen its surveillance of insider trading and simplify its operating rules following a wide-ranging review into its role as market supervisor.

In changes expected to cost about $10.4 million over the next three years, the listed exchange will also set up a separate subsidiary company to conduct its supervisory functions.

The ASX said on Thursday it would bump up annual listing fees from July 1 next year to cover the cost of some of the changes.

Dow Jones Up - Tech Stocks let down by Apple, Boeing Soars on News of $US14.4 billion Qantas Deal: US stocks traded mostly higher overnight, with the main broad-market index touching a four-and-a-half-year high as Wall Street extended a rally on hopes that the recent cycle of interest rate hikes has ended.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.56 per cent, or 61.15 points, to 10,884.87, but the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite fell 0.10 per cent, or 2.34 points, to 2,262.66 at the closing bell.

Dame Anita Roddick, the founder of the Body Shop and one of Britain's best-known businesswomen, has decided to turn her back on the world of commerce and give away her £51 million ($120 million) fortune.

Dame Anita and her husband, Gordon, founded the 300-strong chain of shops in 1976. Now the pair are its biggest shareholders, holding 18 per cent of the shares, worth £100 million. However, she said she wanted to cash in her 20 million shares and give the proceeds away.