MARKET MAKERS

Shares: $5.21 ( 0.58c)

Shares in the brewer surged more than 13 per cent on Tuesday after it said it had rejected a $4.90-a-share offer from the Anglo-South African giant, SABMiller. Shares rocketed past that mark, with investors expecting improved offers from SABMiller and other parties including Grupo Modelo and Molson Coors. It is a sterling example of a demerger "unlocking value" in a company. Foster's shares were trading at about $5.50 just before it spun off the wine business, Treasury Wine Estates.

Paladin Energy

Shares: $2.57 ( 0.15c)

Savaged by global uncertainty around uranium demand after the Fukushima nuclear plant fall-out, Paladin Energy rebounded strongly this week after reports suggested the uranium miner was a "sitting duck" vulnerable to takeover. Its share price has halved since the Japanese tsunami but staged its biggest one-day recovery on Thursday, gaining more than 10 per cent. Chinese and Russian nuclear utilities may be bidders, alongside global commodity traders with little exposure to the uranium space.

Echo Entertainment

Shares: $4.10 ( 0.09c)

Echo, fresh from its split with Tabcorp and seen as a potential takeover target, had a solid week despite rival Crown denying reports it had been buying shares. Crown said it had a 4.9 per cent stake in Tabcorp and Echo but had "no intention of increasing its interest in either company". Echo owns Star City and the Jupiters casinos in Queensland. Shares in Crown have gained about 10 per cent in the past three months as it expands in booming Macau, with some speculating it, in turn, could be taken over by Echo.

Telstra

Shares: $2.88 (-0.16c)

Telstra finally sealed the $11 billion deal for the transfer of its fixed-line monopoly to the National Broadband Network, as its copper network is gradually shut down. But the news failed to excite investors: they had expected most of the details and it would have no material impact on the group's financial results for 2012. The main surprise was negative: Telstra said it expects to have to spend $2 billion in both capital and operational expenditure to effect the deal with NBN Co.

Qantas

Shares: $1.84 ( 0.02c)

Qantas entered a trading halt on Wednesday, sparking speculation it would announce a big hit to profits because of recent bad weather and the major disruption caused by ash clouds from Chilean volcano Puyehue. While the chief executive, Alan Joyce, did reveal an estimated $21 million cost, he also announced a $95 million settlement with Rolls-Royce over the mid-air uncontained engine failure on an Airbus A380. Qantas expects full-year underlying profit before tax of $500 million to $550 million.

Arafura Resources

Shares: $0.775 (-0.14c)

Shares in rare earths miner Arafura Resources fell more than 17 per cent on Thursday after it said it would need an extra $50 million to $60 million for a feasibility study into its Nolans Bore project, delaying production by up to a year and making its plan to begin production by next year almost impossible. Arafura said it wanted the extra time to ensure success, showing the complexity of such mining. Rare earths require complex chemical and engineering treatments to separate the elements dug from the ground.