The Australian share market has opened lower following negative leads from Wall Street and fears the conflict in Ukraine is set to worsen.
US stocks fell sharply overnight with investors also selling shares amid fears of a Wall Street correction.
The Dow Jones dipped 0.84 per cent, the broad-based S&P 500 lost 0.97 per cent and the tech-rich Nasdaq fell 0.71 per cent.
IG market analyst Stan Shamu said fears of an escalation in the Ukraine-Russia conflict was trickling into the local market.
“Investors feel that now is a good time to continue taking money off the table,” Mr Shamu said.
“Perhaps once we start seeing some lower levels for equities, maybe, this might tempt investors to get back into the market.”
All the major resource stocks started the day in the red with BHP down 10 cents at $37.91, Rio Tinto 30 cents lower at $65.03 and Fortescue dropping seven cents to $4.63.
The big four bankers also opened in negative territory. Commonwealth Bank was down 15 cents at $81.91, Westpac was 19 cents lower at $33.48, NAB had dipped 15 cents to $34.53 and ANZ had lost 12 cents to $33.02.
Mining services business Ausdrill plummeted 11 cents, or 10.33 per cent to $0.955 after the company flagged another profit write-down and warned a recovery in the industry would be slower than expected.
Small resources company Strategic Energy Resources was one of the few positive stocks, lifting 0.7 cent, or 14.89 per cent, to 5.4 cents on the back of a breakthrough in the use of graphene for possible drug delivery and early disease detection by Monash University.
KEY FACTS
* On Wednesday at 1030 AEST, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 16 points, or 0.29 per cent, at 5,502.6 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 16.6 points, or 0.3 per cent, at 5,494.9 points.
* The September share price index futures contract was down 31 points at 5,443 points, with 7,525 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 361 million shares worth $662 million.
