ASX 200 index in Sydney trading closed at another record of 35 or 0.52% to 6,779.60 on a rise in resource, retail, and banking stocks.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics in Sydney reported that at the end of September that seasonally adjusted employed people increased by 13,000 to 10.527 million dropping the unemployment rate to 4.2% from 4.3% in August. The unemployment rate in September 2006 was at 4.7%. The report also said that the full-time employment decreased by 17,200 to 7.522 million and part-time employment increased by 30,100 to 3.005 million.

The October employment report will be released on November 8th.

The dollar breached the $0.90 mark for the second time this week after trading stronger after the domestic jobless rate fell to a fresh 33-year low. The Australian dollar against the U.S. dollar closed at $0.9010 up from yesterday's close of $0.8992 after reaching $0.9015.

Of the ASX 200 index shares, Sally Malay Mini led the gainers with a rise of 7.3% followed by increases in Murchison Metals by 6%, in Aquarius by 5.9%, in Perilya Ltd by 4.7%, and in Flight Centre by 4.4%.

Of the ASX 200 index stocks Seek Ltd led the decliners with a fall of 2.6% followed by losses in Transfield Services of 2.8%, Boon Logistics of 3%, Cons Minerals on 3.4% and Independence Group of 4.3%.

In the energy sector Oil Search was up 1.2%, but Santos declined 0.4%. Gold miners also rose on higher metal prices lifting Lihir rose 3%.

The banks were also stronger with ANZ gaining 0.5%, the Commonwealth Bank adding 1.5%, the National Australia Bank adding 0.1% and Westpac edged 0.1% higher.

Retailers were mixed, with Coles Meyer up 0.7%, Harvey Norman 0.8% and Woolworths was down by 0.5%.

In the media sector, News Corp was up 0.4%, Telco Telstra put on 1.3% while Fairfax and PBL were down 0.4% and 0.5% respectively.

National carrier Qantas added 0.3% after it announced that a delay in the delivery of its Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft would not materially affect its operations.

Mitsubishi controlled Murchison Metals Ltd, which launched a unsolicited and unconditional bid for Midwest Corp controlled by Sinosteel Corp yesterday, has announced that it will honor the agreement between Sinosteel and Midwest but also pointed out in the release that Sinosteel does not have an immediate or any unconditional right to acquire a 50% interest in the projects the subject of the Sinosteel Midwest joint venture.

Murchison launched its bid for the rival Midwest to eliminate competition in a project to build a port and railways link on Australia's west coast to ship ore to China and Japan.

The release further added that Sinosteel and Midwest each approve the pre-feasibility and bankable feasibility studies for that project; and Sinosteel and Midwest agree the terms of an operating joint venture agreement for that project. If a project does not progress to an operating joint venture Sinosteel and Midwest are each able to terminate the Sinosteel joint venture. If terminated, Midwest retains the mining tenements.

Midwest has entered into binding exclusive arrangements with Yilgarn Infrastructure Limited in relation to being a foundation user and to assist Yilgarn to progress development of the new rail and port infrastructure as quickly as possible.

Mitsubishi and Murchison's are to develop Jack Hills mine, along with a port and 490 kilometers of railroad through the Australian hinterlands. The combined output of a merger between Murchison and Midwest will be 4 million metric tons of iron ore a year from next year, and 45 million tons by 2013 according to presentation on the Murchison web site.

Murchison stock gained 6% at the close of trade after edging 2% a day ago while Midwest gained 9.4% after surging 28% in the previous session.

The Bank of Queensland Ltd announced it had increased second-half profit of 54 percent on mortgage lending and a sale of its credit-card unit. The bank's net income rose to A$81.4 million in the six months ended Aug. 31, from A$52.7 million a year earlier. On the earnings news the stock gained 2.5% to close at A$19.40.


5:00AM New York, 6:00PM Tokyo- Stocks in Tokyo were lifted after the BoJ left the rates unchanged.