News from AAP

Aust shares close down third day in a row

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The share market has closed lower for a third straight day, following a weak lead from Wall Street and pessimistic manufacturing data from China.

The big miners were hit on Friday by news that a key gauge of Chinese manufacturing activity touched a 15-month low in July, with the banks following in their wake.

“The share market has tried hard but there has been absolutely nothing going in its favour, including a weak lead from Wall Street on corporate earnings,” OptionsXpress market analyst Ben Le Brun said.

“All those factors have conspired against the market and, with that in mind, it was actually a pretty good performance.”

Mr Le Brun said it wasn’t all doom and gloom, with the energy sector and utilities helping cushion the falls.

“When we’ve got the major miners and the banks out of favour, it’s always going to be hard for other sectors to pick up the slack,” he said.

“There’s enough to suggest maybe the bargain hunters are happy to pick up stocks around these levels or not too far south of where we are now, so I think we set ourselves up for a reasonably positive start to next week.”

With bellwether copper and aluminium prices at or around six year lows, Newcrest Mining was down 57 cents, or 4.81 per cent, to $11.27 and BHP Billiton lost 23 points, or 0.9 per cent, at $25.27.

Rio Tinto was flat at $51.20, while Fortescue Metals Group bucked the trend with a 1.5 cent increase to $1.66.

In the banking sector, Commonwealth Bank was down 49 cents, or 0.57 per cent, at $85.81, while NAB sank by 19 cents, or 0.56 per cent, to $33.91.

ANZ dipped 10 cents, or 0.31 per cent, to $32.05, while Westpac was flat at $34.24.

KEY FACTS

* On Friday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 24.2 points, or 0.43 per cent, at 5,566.1.

* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 22.2 points, or 0.44 per cent, at 5,556.8.

* The September share price index futures contract was 21 points lower at 5,512, with 20,020 contracts traded.

* The price of gold in Sydney at 1700 AEST was $US1,085.47 per fine ounce, down $US10.63 on Thursday’s price of $US1,096.10.

* National turnover was 692.2 million securities worth $1.1 billion.