Nice work if you can get it. Thu Apr 1

Another takeover bid, this time in Lihir Gold, from fellow gold miner Newcrest. It's a scrip offer with a small cash component and amounts to about 381 at the moment (1.30pm). I bought a few on the pullback last Friday at 300 and a few more yesterday at 306 on minor weakness again. The company has rejected the bid but has made it clear that they will sell at a better price. There's some chance that an overseas miner might be interested and the stock has been trading above the bid price, mostly in the 390s.
A small fly in the ointment has been that other smaller resource stocks have risen in sympathy including Awc which is through yesterday's high. I haven't stopped out yet, I should have done at 178 and now the stock is at 179.5. I won't leave it much longer...or further. I'm holding off because I can see a small possibility of weakness in the index futures which might drive things down.
My book is quite balanced though with some longs and shorts and close to delta neutral.

3.10 The Spi sell off came and went fairly briefly but Awc has drifted off the early highs. I'm out at 177 versus 173.5.
Just had another stab at Fortescue. It ran up this week so I now think that the chance of further corrections towards support are much smaller. I've been waiting for a pullback and it dropped about 50% of the little move and then stabilised. Long at 493.

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4.10 Asian markets have ignored the overnight weakness in the US to rally nicely today and the Australian market has followed that lead with a late flurry helping things along. It's a good start to the new quarter and the market is now closed until Tuesday.

If you're having some time off, enjoy your break. More next week.