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Australian shares rise as surveys showing a lead in opinion polls for Greece's pro-bailout camps help calm eurozone turmoil fears and ease risk aversion.

1.03pm: A look around the region shows our market is today's star performer, with many others posting losses:

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12.56pm: The Australian dollar is trading at 98.50 US cents, its highest level in almost a week as hopes grow that Greece will elect a pro-bailout party on June 17 and stay in the eurozone.

CMC markets foreign exchange dealer Tim Waterer says the gains made by the pro-bailout parities gave the market a reason to be optimistic:

12.49pm: And unions are echoing the administrator, saying they are scrambling to secure work for about 2000 plumbers and electricians expected to lose their jobs after engineering company Hastie Group was placed in administration.

Communications Electrical Plumbing Union national secretary Peter Tighe said most of the employees whose positions were in jeopardy were contracted to construction projects still in progress around the country.

Union leaders are hoping workers will be able to continue in the current roles under different contracts.

The works got to be finished, Mr Tighe said. What we normally do is well go to the principal contractor and argue that our boys should stay on for the duration of the project."

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Markets Live: Stocks rise on Greek hopes

Now more than ever, a comfortable retirement depends on secure, stable investments. Unfortunately, the right stocks for retirement won't just fall into your lap. In this series, I look at 10 measures to show what makes a great retirement-oriented stock.

Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) is regarded as one of the primary forces behind the proliferation of the Internet. Without its networking infrastructure products, it's hard to imagine what the Internet might look like today. Yet now that the Internet is a well-established part of modern society, Cisco has tried to go past its roots to search for new growth paths. In doing so, though, it has alienated some of the companies with which it worked together earlier in its history. Can Cisco recover from tough times? Below, we'll revisit how Cisco Systems does on our 10-point scale.

The right stocks for retireesWith decades to go before you need to tap your investments, you can take greater risks, weighing the chance of big losses against the potential for mind-blowing returns. But as retirement approaches, you no longer have the luxury of waiting out a downturn.

Sure, you still want good returns, but you also need to manage your risk and protect yourself against bear markets, which can maul your finances at the worst possible time. The right stocks combine both of these elements in a single investment.

When scrutinizing a stock, retirees should look for:

With those factors in mind, let's take a closer look at Cisco Systems.

Factor

What We Want to See

Actual

Pass or Fail?

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Will Cisco Systems Help You Retire Rich?

NORMAN ROTHERY From Saturday's Globe and Mail Published Friday, May. 25, 2012 6:30PM EDT Last updated Friday, May. 25, 2012 7:08PM EDT

The bear market is back and Canadian investors have the claw marks to prove it.

The S&P/TSX composite is now down just over 20 per cent from its highs of early 2011. The European financial crisis and Chinas slowdown have taken a bite out of portfolios and continue to stalk the market.

Fortunately, there is good news even during a rough patch like this. Lower prices can be an opportunity for bargain hunters. In fact, a bear market can be an excellent time to track down a few juicy dividend stocks while theyre on sale.

To guide us in our hunt, lets follow the path of conservative dividend investors a group that has historically done quite well over the long haul.

Investors of this type tend to stick to larger companies because big guys tend to be more stable than small fry, which have the disconcerting habit of swooning after every economic twitch.

When it comes to size, I think its good to employ a two-stage test. Start by looking for firms with market capitalizations in excess of $500-million, then search for those with revenues of $500-million or more. Each factor weeds out slightly different stocks and they work well in combination. For instance, by demanding large revenues you effectively eliminate many speculative junior mining concerns from consideration.

You can get a full list of large Canadian common stocks that trade on the TSX by taking a quick trip to globeinvestor.com's stock filter. If you do so this weekend, youll likely find more than 200 stocks that pass the dual size test.

With such a long list of large Canadian stocks in hand you can develop a good sense of the dividend yields on offer. To form a picture of the dividend landscape, Ive sorted all the stocks into groups based on their yields; Ive then added up the number of stocks in each group. The result is displayed in the accompanying graph, which shows the distribution of large Canadian stocks by dividend yield.

Dividend investors should be pleased that most large Canadian stocks pay dividends because that diversity allows for a good deal of choice when it comes to selecting the best ones for your portfolio.

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10 dividend stocks for safety-conscious bargain hunters

Stocks closed mixed Wednesday after a late rally erased steep losses. The Dow lost seven points to close at 12496

By Matthew Craft,AP Business writer, Pallavi Gogoi,AP Business writer / May 23, 2012

A big final-hour comeback pulled the Dow Jones industrial average nearly back to where it started Wednesday.

The Dow was down as much as 191 points earlier as the threat of a financial crisis spreading from Europe shook markets. The euro dropped to a nearly two-year low against the dollar, and oil prices sank to their lowest this year.

A late surge of buying erased nearly all of the Dow's deficit, leaving it down just 6.66 points at 12,496.15 by the end of the day. Other indexes ended slightly higher.

In the last hour of trading, news crossed that the leaders of France and Italy favored using region-wide bonds to support Europe's economy. That gave traders hope that a summit of European leaders might produce concrete steps to tackle the economic morass there. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned Tuesday that the 17 countries that use the euro risk falling into a "severe recession."

Analysts and investors have turned increasingly skeptical this month that European leaders will prevent Greece from dropping the euro or agree on ways to jump-start the region's economy. The Dow has lost 5 percent this month, nearly wiping away its gains for the year. It has risen only three days in May.

Plenty of good ideas to buttress Europe's financial system have been floated in recent weeks, said Paul Zemsky, global head of asset allocation at ING Investment Management. Eurobonds could be sold by countries in the currency union to raise money for bailouts and banks. Some have proposed insuring bank deposits across countries that use the euro, a program modeled on the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

"There are all these great ideas," Zemsky said. "But there's nothing yet. There's a lot of talk and no follow through."

Benchmark stock indexes dropped more than 2 percent in Germany and France and 3 percent in Spain and Italy.

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Stocks rally to erase steep losses

LONDON (ShareCast) - -JP Morgan suggests ECB rate cut, LTRO restart -EU leaders make little progress -UK contracts more than expected in Q1 An underwhelming EU summit and a barrage of disappointing economic figures failed to hold back gains on Thursday, as the Footsie (FTSE: ^FTSE - news) rebounded following yesterday's steep sell-off. Comments from JP Morgan boosted buying late on after the US bank said in a research note that the European Central Bank (ECB) is likely to react to the ongoing crisis by cutting interest rates and launching another round of cheap funding operations (otherwise known as LTROs). Given the economic data released today, "the ECB will feel more pressure to deliver a monetary response, even though it feels that it has already done a lot to support the region. This response could, for example, be done through interest rate cuts or through further liquidity measures," analyst Greg Fuzesi said. There was also speculation that the EU could look at increasing the resources of the European Investment Bank to bolster investment in infrastructure. Meanwhile, the outcome of last night's informal meeting of the European Council was as expected, with leaders reiterating their stance that they want to keep Greece in the Eurozone as long as it meets the terms of its bailout. The 'eurobonds' issue was a contentious topic, with French and German leaders clashing over the joint debt sales. Several economic reports from home and abroad disappointed today - though that wasn't seen in equity markets - painting a gloomy picture of the global economy: Chinese manufacturing slipped further into contraction; Germany's IFO business index fell sharply; while purchasing managers' indices across the Eurozone came in weak. In the UK, the Office for National Statistics revealed that first-quarter estimate of gross domestic product was revised lower, from -0.2% to -0.3%. Economists had been expecting the initial reading to be confirmed. Economic data from the US was a little better though, helping Wall Street stocks broadly higher after the opening bell; both durable orders and jobless claims data were in line with consensus expectations. FTSE 100 (Euronext: VFTSE.NX - news) : Resources (Euronext: ERS.NX - news) stocks gain as gold and oil prices advance

Randgold Resources (Xetra: A0B5ZS - news) surged today, tracking gold prices higher. Data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF (Berlin: MXG1.BE - news) ) showed today that central banks in Turkey, Ukraine, Mexico and Kazakhstan were building their positions in the precious metal in April on the back of its safe-haven appeal. Stocks in the oil sector were also making gains today as crude prices picked up after the P5+1 group of world powers - China, France, Germany, Russia, UK and US - continued to argue with Iran over its nuclear programme. Oil and gas E&P peers BP and BG Group (Hamburg: BGO.HM - news) were among the best performers, both gaining around 3%; oil services firm Amec (LSE: AMEC.L - news) was also wanted. Shell (LSE: RDSB.L - news) was on the up after extending the offer deadline for AIM-listed Cove Energy (Berlin: LPC.BE - news) after its previously recommended offer was trumped by Thai firm PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP) on Wednesday. "With the Euro crisis set to continue, at least until June 17th when the second round of Greek elections will be held, we can expect to see Oil and Gold fall further as the dollar is expected to continue to appreciate making all dollar priced commodities effectively more expensive," said analyst Craig Erlam from Alpari. United Utilities was higher after saying that it has seen a marked improvement in customer satisfaction in the last year or so, and it is on track to meet regulatory out-performance targets. Financial stocks, having borne the brunt of risk aversion in yesterday's session, were performing well today. Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) , Admiral (LSE: ADM.L - news) , Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS.L - news) and HSBC (LSE: HSBA.L - news) were making gains, while Standard Chartered (Xetra: 859123 - news) was lifted higher after JP Morgan reiterated its overweight rating on the stock. FTSE 250 (FTSE: ^FTMC - news) : C&W Comms surges after full-year results

International mobile operator Cable & Wireless Communications rocketed after underlying earnings came in at $901m in the year to the end of March, better than the $887m estimate. Investors didn't seem too phased that the group expects to halve its dividend in the current year. Food wholesaler Booker was also in demand after saying that increased customer numbers and higher internet sales helped revenue increase by 7.3% in the 52 weeks to March 23rd. FTSE 100 - Risers Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,170.00p +8.00% Vedanta Resources (EUREX: VR9F.EX - news) (VED) 999.50p +5.04% Prudential (LSE: PRU.L - news) (PRU) 686.00p +3.39% BP (BP.) 407.00p +3.33% BG Group (BG.) 1,269.00p +3.21% Wolseley (Berlin: WLY1.BE - news) (WOS) 2,272.00p +2.95% United Utilities Group (UU.) 637.00p +2.74% Fresnillo (Frankfurt: A0MVZE - news) (FRES) 1,347.00p +2.67% Barclays (BARC) 185.30p +2.66% ARM Holdings (LSE: ARM.L - news) (ARM) 495.20p +2.65% FTSE 100 - Fallers Rexam (Xetra: 860000 - news) (REX) 393.90p -1.33% Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 238.40p -1.20% IMI (Xetra: 389425.DE - news) (IMI (EUREX: IMIF.EX - news) ) 894.00p -1.16% Hargreaves Lansdown (HL (Shenzhen: 002105.SZ - news) .) 466.10p -0.68% Evraz (EVR) 308.70p -0.61% Man Group (LSE: EMG.L - news) (EMG) 72.70p -0.55% GKN (Xetra: 694194 - news) (GKN (LSE: GKN.L - news) ) 183.20p -0.49% Antofagasta (Xetra: 867578 - news) (ANTO) 1,027.00p -0.48% Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 3,380.00p -0.32% Burberry Group (LSE: BRBY.L - news) (BRBY) 1,365.00p -0.29% FTSE 250 - Risers Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) 33.01p +17.64% Booker Group (BOK) 78.45p +7.47% Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 135.10p +4.89% Hunting (LSE: HTG.L - news) (HTG) 785.00p +4.67% QinetiQ Group (Other OTC: QNTQF.PK - news) (QQ.) 152.00p +4.61% Domino's Pizza UK & IRL (DOM) 475.30p +4.21% Dunelm Group (Berlin: DFQ.BE - news) (DNLM) 505.00p +4.12% TR Property Inv Trust (TRY) 146.20p +3.91% Investec (Frankfurt: A0J32R - news) (INVP) 325.90p +3.62% RPS Group (Frankfurt: 874849 - news) (RPS) 206.30p +3.36% FTSE 250 - Fallers Homeserve (Dusseldorf: XHSA.DU - news) (HSV) 144.00p -4.70% Aquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP) 72.20p -3.48% Spirit Pub Company (SPRT) 50.25p -3.37% COLT Group SA (COLT) 114.90p -3.20% Home Retail Group (EUREX: HOMF.EX - news) (HOME) 75.40p -3.08% Ocado Group (Xetra: A1C2GZ - news) (OCDO) 104.70p -2.88% Bumi (BUMI) 398.90p -2.45% PZ Cussons (LSE: PZC.L - news) (PZC) 316.80p -2.34% Kesa Electricals (Other OTC: KESAF.PK - news) (KESA) 49.03p -2.33% Redrow (Xetra: 906188 - news) (RDW) 112.20p -2.18% BC

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London close: Stocks surge as JPMorgan hints at ECB stimulus