The Australian share market has closed marginally lower as investors took a breather from this week’s run upwards.
Investors juggled a mix of influences, including miner Rio Tinto’s profit result which was released after the market had closed on Wednesday, Telstra’s profit result, local jobs data and an inflation figure from China.
At 1615 AEST on Thursday the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 4.3 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 4,308.3 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index dipped 2.8 points, or 0.06 per cent, to 4,330.1 points.
On the ASX 24, the September share price index futures contract was 13 points lower at 4,267 points, with 24,627 contracts traded, according to preliminary calculations.
“Confidence isn’t quite as strong as everyone would want it to be,” IG Markets market strategist Stan Shamu said.
“But, having said that, we’ve had a pretty big rally over the past week, so at some stage we had to take a breather.”
Mr Shamu said the market had been boosted by Rio’s better-than-expected result and the China data, but, on the negative side, Telstra had led the losses.
Mr Shamu said the Australian jobs figures were positive but had not had a major impact upon the market, and the Chinese inflation data had been more influential.
He said slowing inflation in China gave policymakers there room to stimulate the economy and fulfil their pledge to support growth.
China announced on Thursday that its inflation had eased to a two-and-a-half-year low in July.
The Australian jobless rate unexpectedly eased to 5.2 per cent in July, with the number of people in work rising by a seasonally adjusted 14,000, more than the 10,000 forecast by economists.
Economists had expected the jobless rate to be 5.3 per cent in July.
Telstra was nine cents lower at $3.88 despite delivering its first increase in annual profits in three years and adding 1.6 million customers to its mobile network.
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation reversed 73 cents to $21.88 as it said it was expecting moderate earnings growth in its 2013 financial year, after suffering a 55 per cent slide in profit during 2012.
Gambling firm Tabcorp shed 11 cents to $3.20 after its reported annual net profit fell to $340 million in the year to June 30, 2012, from $534.8 million in 2010/11, largely as the result of the demerger of its casinos business in 2011.
In the resources sector, miner Rio Tinto surged $1.97 to $56.86. On Wednesday, Rio Tinto had provided a bullish outlook for China, predicting a quick recovery in its pace of growth, after the miner’s profits fell due in part to weaker demand from the Asian giant.
BHP Billiton gained 52 cents to $32.80.
Among the major banks, Commonwealth Bank lost 56 cents to $57.03, National Australia Bank surrendered 20 cents to $25.42, ANZ improved seven cents to $23.82, and Westpac sagged 12 cents to $24.01.
Preliminary national turnover was 1.42 billion shares worth $4.2 billion, with 388 stocks down, 427 up and 392 unchanged.
