3:00AM New York, 7:00PM Sydney- ASX 200 index rose 3.7% as financial stock led the gainers.

Market Sentiments

ASX 200 index gained 3.7% or 190.9 to close at 5,318.40.

The preliminary market turnover on the Sydney stock exchange was 1.51 billion worth $6.95 billion, with 730 stocks trading higher, 479 trading lower and 320 unchanged. Centro Properties was the most active stock with 42 million shares trading volume worth $10.9 million.

Market Driver

National Australia Bank today announced an increase of 0.09% to its variable home loan interest rate to 9.36%. The new rate takes effect from tomorrow morning.

NAB''s latest rate rise comes almost three weeks after it became the first of the big banks to pass on the increase in the official cash rate imposed by the Reserve Bank of Australia this month.

In the first week of March the RBA lifted the official rate by 25 basis points to 7.25%. NAB then lifted its standard variable rate by 29 basis points but warned it may have to lift rates again. Its share gained 5.1%.

Commonwealth Bank gained 8% after saying it expected to make a pre-tax gain of about $355 million from the sale of its holding in Visa, which listed on the New York Stock Exchange last week.

Australia''s fifth largest bank, St George added 6.5% after it said it stood to make a pre-tax profit of about $75 million on the shares it received in the Visa IPO.

Gainers and losers

Of the ASX 200 index stocks, Allco Finance Group led the gainers with a rise of 102.4% followed by increases in Bendigo Bank Ltd of 19.4%, in Challenger Finance of 18%, in Babcock & Brown of 17.7%, and in Macquarie Group of 11.7%.

Of the ASX 200 index stocks, Centro Properties led the decliners with a fall of 14.5% followed by losses in Centro Retail GR of 9.1%, in Spotless Group of 7.9%, in Corp Express Aus of 5.5% and in Macquarie DDR TR of 4.4%.

Santos'' boss resigns

Santos today announced the resignation of its Managing Director and Chief Executive, John Ellice-Flint effective immediately. The company said a statement that he would however continue with the Company until June 30, 2008 as a consultant. Executive Vice President David Knox was appointed Acting Chief Executive Officer.

Since his appointment in 2000, Ellice-Flint has led Santos through a period of significant growth and development. His achievements include taking the Company from a domestic onshore oil and gas producer to become a leading regional oil and gas field operator as well as a producer of LNG and CSG.

Ellice-Flint has also been responsible for key projects such as the development of the Mutineer and Exeter offshore oil fields, the Bayu Undan LNG field, and recent initiatives such as the Gladstone LNG project, the Moomba Carbon Storage project and the agreement of the South Australian Government to repeal the 15% shareholding cap.

""John has driven the transformation of Santos'' reserves position and operations to underwrite a very promising long term growth outlook. He has also brought about a remarkable cultural change throughout the Company to make it far more innovative and regionally focused,"" Chairman Gerlach said.

Santos stock edged 0.5%.

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