CSR plans to close manufacturing lines in Victoria and NSW, with around 100 redundancies, to cope with challenging conditions.

The Australian stock market closed slightly higher, with late gains in financial and mining stocks helping the market make back earlier losses.

CBA's bid for Count Financial is an opportunistic move made by CEO designate Ian Narev at the bottom of the cycle which is light on premium, analysts say.

Capital city home prices have slumped by 2.9% over the past year as cautious consumers, financial turmoil and poor business conditions hurt the sector.

Total credit provided to the private sector by financial intermediaries rose 0.2 per cent in July, the RBA says.

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