Australian shares are marginally weaker as uncertainty about the US Federal Reserve’s stimulus decision hits banks and retailers.
The US Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee is expected to favour a tapering of its bond buying program, when its last meeting for 2013 concludes on Thursday morning Australian time.
Morgans private client adviser Alistair McCorquodale says investors don’t like waiting.
“It’s really the uncertainty as to what the Federal Reserve will do,” he said.
“The fact that you have a situation where it could go either one way or another … just creates uncertainty in investors’ minds.”
Among the major banks, Westpac fell 25 cents to $30.62 as Commonwealth Bank shed 25 cents to $73.68.
But ANZ rose 22 cents to $30.70 as National Australia Bank advanced one cent to $33.41.
In the resources sector, diversified global miner BHP Billiton had climbed 13 cents to $35.79, Rio Tinto was up three cents to $65.33 and Fortescue Metals was eight cents higher at $5.60.
Telstra was two cents higher at $5.04.
Meanwhile, shares in hotel booking business Wotif.com plunged $1.33, or 31.82 per cent, to a five-and-a-half year low of $2.85, after it issued a weaker half year profit forecast.
And shares in REA Group continued to tumble, losing $1.74, or more than 4.6 per cent, to $36.
REA shares fell almost seven per cent on Tuesday after the company announced chief executive Greg Ellis would leave the business.
Pact Group lost 12 cents, or 3.61 per cent, to $3.20 a day after the packaging firm’s shaky float saw it lose 12.63 per cent on its first day.
Retail conglomerate Wesfarmers lost 76 cents, or 1.79 per cent, to $41.80 while rival Woolworths lost five cents to $32.68.
KEY FACTS
* On Wednesday at 1615 AEDT, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 7.1 points, or 0.14 per cent, at 5,096.1 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 6.8 points, or 0.13 per cent, at 5,099.3 points.
* The December share price index futures contract was three points lower at 5,097 points, with 92,842 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 1.4 billion securities worth $4.3 billion.
