Australia Market Wrap
Local shares hammered again
Another poor lead from Wall Street, falling commodity prices, a disregard for the RBA Chairman’s speech and falling Asian markets, contributed to mining and industrial shares being sold off again. Worries about spiraling US troubles with Citi and the automaker’s continued to shake investor confidence.
In regional markets, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index was down 3.7% to 76.30 and the Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost 4.3% to 7,915.63.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 4.2%, or 146.7 points, to 3352.
The materials, health and energy indexes were the hardest hit. The financials index recovered but was still 2.2% lower at noon. The materials sub-index was down 7%.
Miners hit hardest
BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP) was down a whopping $2.10, or 9%, to $21.10, Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) was down $8.65, or 13.1%, to $57.25, Paladin Energy (ASX:PDN) lost a huge 36 cents, or 16.2%, to $1.85, Fortescue Metals (ASX:FMG) was down 6.5 cents, or 4.8%, to $1.29 and Oz Minerals (ASX:OZL) continued its bad run and was down 10.5 cents, or 16.7%, to 52.5 cents.
Gold miner Newcrest Mining (ASX:NCM), which was up in early trading, was steady at $18.85, and Lihir Gold (ASX:LGL) as down 6.5 cents, or 3.8%, to $1.62.5.
Energy stocks were lower after oil prices fell overnight on higher inventories and lower global growth worries. Woodside Petroleum (ASX:WPL) was down $3.28, or 9.7%, to $30.65 and Santos (ASX:STO) was down 42 cents, or 3.3%, to $12.40.
Banks fall further
ANZ Bank (ASX:ANZ) was down 82 cents, or 5.9%, to $13.00, Commnwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) was down $1.62, or 5.2%, to $29.31, National Australia Bank (ASX:NAB) was down 86 cents, or 4.4%, to $18.82 and Westpac (ASX:WBC) lost 65 cents, or 4%, to $15.60.
Among the investment banks, Macquarie Group’s (ASX:MQG) star continued to shine as it gained $1.84, or 7.3%, to $27.00 and Babcock & Brown (ASX:BNB) shares were placed in a trading halt today over a dispute with a bank.
Telstra (ASX:TLS) was down 13 cents, or 3.2%, to $3.97 and SingTel (ASX:SGT), owner of its major rival Optus, was down 2 cents, or 0.8%, to $2.45.
The Australian dollar was weaker as a dive on Wall Street to five-year lows and was trading at 63.43 US cents, down 1.4 US cents from Wednesday's close. The Reserve Bank intervened to buy a record amount of dollars in October as turmoil in global markets sent the Aussie tumbling to five-year lows. The RBA bought a net $3.15 billion in Aussie dollars in October. That was the largest amount ever bought in a single month and the first purchase since 2001.
Other Australia Market Wrap articles
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07/01/09 Resource shares keep Australian market at 2 month high
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06/01/09 Australian shares buoyed by rally in small miners
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05/01/09 Aussie shares pulled back by banks
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22/12/08 Holidays and lack of leads pulls market lower
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19/12/08 Bargain hunters scoop up Aussie banks
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18/12/08 Australian shares recover – but still catching the CBA disease
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17/12/08 Aussie shares gain, but feel CBA’s pain
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16/12/08 Local stocks fall, but off lows
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15/12/08 Aussie miners lift market on US auto bailout optimism
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12/12/08 Local shares follow fortunes of US auto bail-out
Other Australia Market Wrap news
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08/01/09 Aussie resource stocks slam market into reverse
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15/12/08 Centro in trading halt, talks with bankers
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10/12/08 Customers to benefit from Reserve Bank changes to ATM fees
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10/12/08 Oroton 2008/09 results "encouraging"
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05/12/08 Australian car dealers - in $2b bail-out by Big Four banks
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03/12/08 Metal prices fall more than during Great Depression
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02/12/08 RBA slashes cash rate by 1%
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28/11/08 iCash releases CashPod ATM for Australia/NZ markets at AGM
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27/11/08 BHP Billiton leads the market higher
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25/11/08 China net importer of metals in October