Philippines brewing giant San Miguel Corporation signalled yesterday its $92 million takeover of J Boag & Son was only the first step in a broad Australian expansion strategy, but stressed it had no plans to immediately target the mainstream beer market.

It also emerged that the Australian Stock Exchange's surveillance unit was closely examining Monday's trading patterns in J Boag, which closed 8.5¢ higher at $1.115 after a late surge from as low as 89¢ on a day when the sharemarket collapsed.