Friday Flashback

THE WEEKLY WRAP: The All Ordinaries finished on a reasonable note last week by closing in positive territory for the fourth day on the trot, running against the trend of overseas markets, which saw the US market suffer its sixth consecutive down day.

Virgin Australia (ASX: VAH) did its best to pull focus from the Orbis Gold (ASX: OBS) – SEMAFO cage match to announce it had struck a deal which will result in the carrier acquire the remaining 40 per cent of shares it doesn’t own in discount airline Tiger Australia for a price of $1.

There’s possibly a good number of holiday makers out there who, having either had flights cancelled or been separated from their luggage over the years by the fly-by-night feline, may consider the deal to be overpriced.

SEMAFO had a battle victory in its war with Orbis with the latter deferring a shareholder vote on plans to hand a 17 per cent stake to London investor Greenstone Resources.

The local market enjoyed a bright start to the week with bargain hunters insisting the best value remains in buying the major stocks of BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP), which took a 44 cent jump and Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) up 36 cents.

The shopping spree even extended to potential take-over target Fortescue Metals Group (ASX: FMG), which just managed to bother the scorers for the day with a two cent rise.

On Tuesday St George Mining (ASX: SGQ) announced it had extended a VMS system on the company’s East Laverton property in Western Australia to record a rise of 0.05 cents.

Meanwhile, the country stood still and lowered its collective flag to half-mast in recognition of the passing of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.

Readers of The West Australian woke up on Wednesday to a suggestion Doray Minerals’ (ASX: DRM) request for a trading halt could have something to do with a Vulcanesque mind-meld with Mutiny Gold (ASX: MYG).

Not a bad result all-up for Hump Day with the market posting its seventh positive in a row and the gold price soaring to a six week high.

The Doray/Mutiny Mystery deepened on Thursday when Mutiny Gold requested, “ASX grants the company a suspension of its securities from trading effective immediately pending an announcement regarding a potential corporate combination.”

The local bourse followed overseas trends to record a sluggish start to the day.

However, just to ensure the week finished with more mystery than an episode of Scooby Doo those pesky kids at Krucible Metals (ASX: KRB) requested a trading halt, “pending the release to the market of a discovery announcement…relating to recent exploration and current drilling on its Tobermorey EL28170 tenement in the Northern Territory”.

Whoever said there’s nothing happening in the junior sector is obviously not paying any attention at all.