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ASX market review: APN Outdoor targets Adshel, banks bounce back, Telstra dives

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By John Beveridge - 
ASX market APN Outdoor Adshel, banks Telstra
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It has been a crack-a-jack week on the Australian share market which ended just off a ten year high amid plenty of action including a steep recovery by the big banks, a record high for Macquarie and a big dive from Telstra.

The 2.15 per cent rise was the best weekly outcome since November 2016 and was even more impressive when you factor in steep plunges on many Asian share markets..

Everywhere you looked there was something happening from Gina Rinehart’s dramatic cash bid for Atlas Iron to BP pulling out of the $1.8 billion deal to buy Woolworth’s petrol stations.

Three way tussle for outdoor advertising

Then there was the tussle to buy HT&E’s (ASX: HT1) outdoor advertising division Adshel.

By the end of the week HT&E shares were up 4.2 per cent at $2.46 after receiving a revised proposal from APN Outdoor Group (ASX: APO).

The revised deal includes $230 million in cash and and 54.1 million APO shares.

That bid followed on from another bid from the world’s largest outdoor advertising furniture provider, JC Decaux, to acquire APO for $540 million.

Whatever happens from here in this dancing competition it looks like the outdoor advertising market is about to get some consolidation.

Banks make an impressive comeback

It was the banks that were the real highlight of the market action though, with the sector up an impressive 5.3 per cent after the market apparently decided that the worst of the fallout was over from the Royal Commission.

ANZ was the most improved of the big four after announcing that it would double the size of its share buyback to $3 billion.

The bigger splurge on its own shares came after the bank received around $1 billion from the sale of its Australian life insurance business.

It wasn’t all sweetness and light on the market with Telstra shares in the doldrums down by 8.8 per cent after a very frosty reception for its plan to shrink to greatness by axing 8000 jobs.

The week ahead

There is a distinct lack of Australian data as the financial year approaches. There is an update on Australian household finances and wealth on Thursday which will provide some clues about how consumer spending – the biggest driver of economic growth – is travelling.

The statistics in the US are a little less sparse with economic growth figures out along with a key measure of inflation.

Chinese profit and manufacturing data are also released.