Australian shares have finished in the red, with low trading volumes and falls across all sectors except one.
Investors are sitting on the sidelines ahead of the Easter break and amid a lack of economic data, IG market strategist Evan Lucas says.
“It is a really slow day with trading volumes well below the daily average,” Mr Lucas said.
“It’s a short week ahead of the long Easter weekend. People are moving away from their desks.
“There is also no major policy announcements to give people any conviction and all of that dries up trade volumes.”
He said there was also a bit of “buyers exhaustion” following recent strong buying among the heavyweight banks and mining stocks.
A lacklustre lead from Wall Street overnight after suicide bomb attacks in Brussels prompted a drop in key US travel stocks were also weighing on the local bourse.
All sectors were lower except for consumer staples with the major supermarkets climbing higher.
Woolworths rose 31 cents to $22.38, while Coles owner Wesfarmers added 28 cents to $42.05.
The big banks finished lower with Commonwealth Bank down 21 cents at $76.70, Westpac shed 10 cents to $32.33, ANZ slipped 10 cents to $25.34 and National Australia Bank dropped 55 cents to $27.22.
Mining giant BHP Billiton fell 30 cents to $17.60, while Rio Tinto finished flat at $43.86.
Oil and gas producer Woodside Petroleum dropped 24 cents to $27.13 after it put on hold its multi-billion dollar Browse liquefied natural gas project.
KEY FACTS:
* At 1615 AEDT, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 24.3 points, or 0.47 per cent, at 5,142.3 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 25.5 points, or 0.49 per cent, at 5,205.3 points.
* The June share price index futures contract was down 34 points at 5,129 points, with 24,178 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 2.0 billion securities traded, worth $4.9 billion.
