The Just clothing chain opened 65 new stores in Australia and New Zealand in the six months ended Jan. 26, increasing its network of outlets to 875.

Just share rose 13% while Premier fell 11%.

St George hikes rates

Australia''s fifth largest lender, St George Bank Ltd today announced that it has hiked its variable home loan rate by another 10 basis points to 9.47%. The hike is effective from Thursday. St George lifted its rate by 35 basis points to 9.37% earlier this month.

The bank in a statement said that the hike was necessary on rising costs of wholesale funding. All variable home loan interest rates will increase by 0.10% pa.

In addition the bank said its annual Standard Variable Rate would increase from 9.37% to 9.47%. The bank said the far reaching impacts of the US sub-prime lending crisis on global liquidity and the wholesale funding markets have not abated, and with the supply of funding remaining tight the market has seen funding costs continue to increase.

George Beatty, Acting Group Executive Retail Bank said; ""We have sustained increased funding costs for the last nine months, and we currently continue to absorb some of this increase along with our customers. However, similar to shop owners who increase prices to reflect the cost of
their goods, we also need to re-price loans to reflect the increased cost of funding those loans.""

This 0.10% rate rise equates to an increase in a monthly home loan payment of approximately $17 per month on an average sized loan of $250,000 over 30 years.

The St George announcement comes ahead of a meeting of the Reserve Bank of Australia tomorrow when it would again consider its position on monetary policy. The Reserve Bank raised the official cash rate by 0.25% at the start of the month to 7.25% - a near 12-year high for the central bank.

In a landmark speech last week, Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens said it was not realistic to expect big banks to restrain their rates hikes to the official cash rate increases in the current environment.

St George''s announcement Monday puts its home loan rates well above its major bank rivals, after Westpac Banking Corporation moved to match its major rivals, with a 10 basis point increase to 9.37%, effective from April 2.

Westpac''s move, driven by the higher cost of its own wholesale borrowings, came only three days after National Australia Bank Ltd lifted its home loan rate by nine basis points to 9.36%.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia Ltd, whose standard home loan rate stands at 9.32%, now has the lowest rate. ANZ Banking Group Ltd''s home loans carry a 9.37% interest charge. St George Bank shed 0.4%, Westpac fell 0.6%, ANZ shed 2.7%, National Australia Bank rose 0.6% and Commonwealth Bank fell 2.1%.

Woodside announces $5 billion investment

Woodside Petroleum Ltd today announced that North West Shelf venture today approved a $5 billion investment, its largest ever, in an offshore natural gas production platform, the North Rankin 2 project, to underpin supply commitments to customers in north Asia.

The project would involve a process where low-pressure gas would be extracted from two ageing fields by adding compression, enabling production to be extended. Woodside is the operator of the $20 billion venture. Production is due to start in 2013.

Woodside and BHP Ltd, BP Plc, Chevron Corp, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and a company controlled by Mitsui & Co. and Mitsubishi Corp. own 16% in the North West Shelf venture.

Woodside gained 1.9% and BHP fell 0.7%.

Highlands to commence Ramu nickel cobalt project

Highlands Pacific Limited today announced that its joint venture to for nickel and cobalt has formally commenced at accelerated construction schedule.