News that the government would axe its carbon floor price from 2015 and link the Australian and European carbon trading schemes sent stock prices higher by 3 per cent or more for those most affected, such as BlueScope, Arrium and Boral.
But the changes won't come into effect until 2015, by which time who knows what will be influencing stock prices.
It says something about the fragile market sentiment when yet another change in government policy, which won't have any impact for three years, causes a bounce in prices.
Stock traders are normally attacked for being too short-term in their thinking, so this was quite a form reversal.
The move also comes with more restrictions on what projects can be used to gain credits.
The big negative, of course, is the potential hole in future federal budgets, given the government has already handed out the cash to consumers and business to spend before gaining any increased revenue. That revenue will now obviously be less.
Politically, some heat has been taken out of the debate for future governments because if Europe and the market are setting the prices, business lobbyists will have their hands tied.
ALISON Watkins tried a company-transforming acquisition in merging with AWB when she first took the reins at GrainCorp just over two years ago.
Yesterday's $472 million expansion through the creation of an integrated oils business won't have quite the same impact but shows commendable vision.
There are some initial question marks over the price paid for the biggest chunk, the $302m Gardner Smith purchase, which came in at 9.2 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.
Gardner Smith is a family-owned grain-crushing company and will take about $116m worth of stock -- about 5 per cent of the expanded company -- as part of the deal.
The second leg was the $170m purchase of the Goodman Fielder oil business at 5.5 times earnings, paid in part by a $159m rights issue underwritten by Credit Suisse.
GrainCorp's stock has ridden the rise in US wheat prices, which have increased from $US6.10 to $US8.60 a pound since June.
GrainCorp recently hit a 52-week high of $10.05 a share ahead of a deal at $9.85 a share.
Watkins rejects the concerns over the price paid, saying she is creating a new business under the old mantra of integrating supply, from the paddock to the plate.
In good years about 55 per cent of Gardner Smith's earnings come from its liquid storage terminals, which fit well with the GrainCorp ports and storage operations and also attract higher transaction multiples.
Watkins is not letting the gloom over Australian food processing stop her expanding into a market dominated by the likes of US giant Cargill.
WHILE the political debate over the National Broadband Network plays out, Telstra has planted its foot on the accelerator to fast-forward the rollout of its 4G wireless network.
This will cover two-thirds of the population within the next two months, delivering high-speed broadband much faster than the NBN.
Two points should be noted. First, as all involved acknowledge, wireless is a complementary technology and the more it is used the more you need an efficient fixed-line network. Second, the naysayers who worried that Telstra was being restricted in promoting wireless while collecting about $18 billion in cash from the NBN were clearly wrong.
Telstra says it can't denigrate the NBN but is free to promote wireless, which it is doing with its ears pinned back.
Malcolm Turnbull was in Drouin in Victoria yesterday, supporting the work of private contractor Opticomm in rolling out fibre to a new housing estate.
His aim was to question why the government changed the rules to effectively provide NBN to new housing estates free of charge, as a sort of lender of last resort.
This means the slow NBN rollout at least temporarily delays access. There's no issue here because the government allows greenfield estate competition, so the issue is at what price Opticomm is rolling out its service.
Greenfield rollouts work where they can connect efficiently to the existing network, which means they rely on the national network.
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