The Australian share market has closed slightly lower in the wake of weak leads from US and European markets and the absence of any catalyst to push it into positive territory.
In early trading the Australian market dipped below the 5,000 point mark but later retraced much of its losses.
Phillip Capital senior client adviser Michael Heffernan said the lead from US and European markets on Friday had been pretty dismal.
“I suppose the fact that we’re down less than half a per cent is an okay effort on a day when we have no positive leads from overseas,” Mr Heffernan said.
“And there’s no domestic catalyst that’s driving the market, so we’re running purely on momentum here.”
He said the performance of stocks on the Australian market was mixed, with no discernible trend.
Mr Heffernan said the next major local driver for the Australian market could be the release of jobs figures on Thursday.
Among the major banks, Westpac was 14 cents lower at $29.80 as it outlined a new strategy.
Westpac wants to attract more than one million new customers over the next two years and increase its annual investment by $200 million to $1.3 billion.
ANZ was off 15 cents at $26.71, Commonwealth Bank added 17 cents to $72.32, and National Australia Bank was down 19 cents at $29.61.
In the resources sector, mining giant Rio Tinto fell 61 cents to $49.15 after ratings agency Standard & Poor’s revised the miner’s outlook to negative, from stable, due to continued commodity price weakness and volatility, and its dividend distribution commitment.
BHP Billiton descended 50 cents to $24.19, and Fortescue Metals firmed 6.5 cents to $1.925.
Biotech Starpharma soared 13 cents, or 21.31 per cent, to 74 cents after the company announced a drug delivery system deal with global biopharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca.
Telstra scraped off one cent to $5.60.
Medibank Private was steady at $2.24.
KEY FACTS
* On Monday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 10.2 points, or 0.2 per cent, at 5,030.4 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 9.8 points, or 0.19 per cent, at 5,051 points.
* The September share price index futures contract was down three points at 5,022 points, with 32,310 contracts traded.
* The price of gold in Sydney at 1700 AEST was $US1,122.80 per fine ounce, down $US2.50 on Friday’s price of $US1,125.30.
* National turnover was 1.6 billion securities worth $4.8 billion.
