Beyond the strategic M&A shenanigans, the local mining market gave a decidedly underwhelming show today with most miners failing to post gains.
Both the All Ordinaries and the S&P-ASX 200 lost ground today with the All Ords down 64.4 points to 5633.8 and the top 200 shedding 54.4 to 5530.1.
Both of the big guns wallowed in negative territory with Rio closing down at $136.48, a $5.30 (3.8%) drop.
And despite finally lifting force majeure at its Mitsubishi Alliance coal mines late today, BHP Billiton ended $1.94 (4.4%) down at $43.44.
But, here’s what happened in the aforementioned takeover land.
Shares in takeover target Midwest Corp lost 29c (4.3%) to $6.40 as its Chinese shareholder Sinosteel made further attempts to block Murchison Metal’s merger ambitions.
The Murchison-Midwest tussle saw the Chinese steelmaker up its voting stake in Midwest to more than 33% while Sinosteel also found time to take its beef over Harbinger Capital Partners’ grab for additional Midwest shares to the Takeovers Panel.
Sinosteel claims the US-based investment house’s share bid breaches the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act.
The developments had a harsher effect on Murchison with its shares falling 31c or 7.5% to $4.05.
After receiving a paltry 0.6% acceptance rate for its share offer, Indophil Resources has extended its takeover bid for investment house Lion Selection to July 7.
Meanwhile Lion has said it prefers to offload its Indophil stake to global mining giant Xstrata and recommended shareholders to ignore the extended offer.
Indophil stocks closed 1c down to $1.11 while Lion shed 3.5c to $1.85.
A spokesman for Indonesia’s PT Bumi Resources has urged Herald Resources shareholders to reject Tango Mining’s share offer, saying the coal miner was likely to launch a fresh bid for the Aussie resource play, Dow Jones reported.
"We are now evaluating the bid from the other parties for Herald," the Bumi spokesman told the newswire.
The London Metals Exchange dealt mixed news with losses in aluminium, copper and lead. Nickel was up 2.3% to $US22670, tin rose 0.84% to $US21365 and zinc traded 2.5% higher at $1959.50.
