The Australian share market has closed lower for its third straight session, dragged down by losses among the major miners and big banks.
Investors largely ignored gains on markets in the United States and Europe overnight, and instead stewed over lower iron ore prices, CommSec market analyst Tom Piotrowski said.
“Prices for iron ore continue to lose ground and the weaker home prices we saw out of China yesterday aren’t helping; they just talked to a slower growth picture in China,” he said.
“Buyers are also not racing to get back into the banks after they went ex-dividend and reported their numbers.
“That’s two important planks missing which is why the market has lost ground.”
Today’s market decline marks seven falls over the past eight sessions.
Global miner BHP Billiton had fallen 51 cents to $32.67, Rio Tinto had shed $1.49 to $57.98, and Fortescue Metals had lost 23 cents to $2.74.
Among the major banks, Commonwealth Bank was down 41 cents to $80.54, ANZ dipped six cents to $31.77 and National Australia Bank slipped 24 cents to $32.13.
However, Westpac had recovered from earlier losses to finish three cents higher at $32.79.
Among the better performers was building products maker James Hardie. Its shares gained 52 cents, or 4.33 per cent, to $12.52 after reporting a strong jump in half year operating profit.
The Nine network edged one cent higher after Nine Entertainment boss David Gyngell put regional TV stations on notice, saying their big-city counterparts won’t be needing them within five years.
Meanwhile, beef and cattle producer Australian Agricultural Company shed two cents to $1.485 after reporting a first half loss of $13.59 million, an improvement on the $31.62 million deficit of a year ago.
KEY FACTS
* At 1630 AEDT on Wednesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 30.9 points, or 0.57 per cent, at 5,368.8 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 30.6 points, or 0.57 per cent, at 5,352.5 points.
* The December share price index futures contract was 37 points lower at 5,377 points, with 23,827 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 1.3 billion securities worth $3.3 billion.
