Aussie shares pulled back by banks
The Australian sharemarket opened markedly higher, led by resource heavyweights and small miners, but banking issues came under severe selling pressure and the strong three per cent overnight lead by Wall Street was not a factor in the local market.
Trading volumes were low as the summer holidays saw many investors and fund managers on the sidelines away from their screens.
Regional Asian markets were all higher with Hong Kong up one per cent and the Japanese market two per cent higher.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed down 26.8 points, or 0.7%, at 3687.
Bank stocks sold off
Bank stocks were weaker as niggles about the severity of bank bad debt levels overshadowed many investors’ perceptions. ANZ Bank (ASX:ANZ) lost 11 cents, or 0.7%, to $15.07, Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) was down 60 cents, or 2.0%, at $28.60, NAB (ASX:NAB) lost 17 cents, or 0.8%, to $20.23 and Westpac (ASX:WBC) fell 12 cents, or 0.7%, at $16.64.
Macquarie Group (ASXMQG) was up 70 cents, or 2.4% to $29.86 and Babcock & Brown (ASX:BNB) gained 6 cents, or 31.6%, to 25 cents.
Miners continue to regain ground
Rebounding metal prices continued the renaissance of resource stocks since December 2008. BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP)was up $1.05, or 3.4%, to $31.63, Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) was up $3.34, or 8.6%, at $42.30 and Fortescue Metals (ASX:FMG) gained 9 cents, or 4.5%, to $2.10.
Gold stocks were lower, as Lihir Gold (ASX:LGL) gave up 19 cents, to $2.90 and Newcrest Mining (ASX:NCM) was hammered losing $2.69, or 7.9%, to $31.22.
Oil stocks were higher, Santos (ASX:STO) was up 8 cents, or 0.5% to $14.75 and Woodside Petroleum (ASX:WPL) was up 47 cents, or 1.3%, to $37.77.
Harvey Norman (ASX:HVN) was up 4 cents, or 1.5%, to $2.69 and David Jones (ASX:DJS) lost 9 cents, or 2.8%, to $3.12.
The Australian dollar gained further ground to trade up at 71.20 US cents, up 4% since December 2008.
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