The Australian share market is trading lower despite gains on US markets overnight.
“It (the market) started with a bit of enthusiasm but petered away very quickly,” Phillip Capital senior client adviser Michael Heffernan said.
He said there appeared to be nothing in particular to drive the market downwards at the moment except that investors seemed to have a contrary attitude and the market traditionally went down in May.
Mr Heffernan said disappointing private capital expenditure figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics had reversed the negative direction a little as investors speculated that the data could add weight for another cut to interest rates.
Business investment fell 4.4 per cent in the March quarter, a much larger fall than the median market forecast of 2.4 per cent.
Mr Heffernan said the Australian dollar was weaker after the release of the capex figures, which should also be beneficial for the equities market.
Among the big four banks at 1200 AEST, the Commonwealth Bank was down 72 cents at $83.41, ANZ had lifted 15 cents to $32.67, National Australia Bank eased 20 cents to $33.36, and Westpac was 9.5 cents weaker at $33.105.
In the resources sector, global miner BHP Billiton was 31 cents lower at $29.03, Rio Tinto dipped two cents to $57.29, and iron ore pure play Fortescue Metals nudged up one cent to $2.37.
Woolworths descended eight cents to $27.86 as the retail giant signed up Telstra to help it offer mobile services direct to its customers.
Telstra was down 4.5 cents at $6.165.
Testing and analytical laboratory services provider ALS dropped 27.5 cents to $6.155 after it reported a net loss of $174.5 million for the year to March 31, compared to a net profit of $154.4 million in 2013/14.
Accounting software group MYOB shed four cents to $3.55 as it bought a New Zealand payroll solutions company for $NZ14 million ($A13.15 million).
KEY FACTS
* At 1206 AEST on Thursday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 23.1 points, or 0.4 per cent, at 5,702.2 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 19.9 points, or 0.35 per cent, at 5,704.3 points.
* The June share price index futures contract was down 32 points at 5,708 points, with 15,082 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 753.2 million securities worth $1.56 billion.
