The Australian market looks set to open lower after a mixed and lacklustre performance on international markets with Wall Street closed and China turning in disappointing growth data.
At 0650 AEDT on Tuesday, the March share price index futures contract was down seven points at 5,249.
China’s economy last year registered flat growth of 7.7 per cent, the same as in 2012 and maintaining its slowest expansion in more than a decade, as the government warned of “deep-rooted problems” including a mountain of local authority debt.
Economists had expected 7.6 per cent growth.
Wall Street was closed for the Martin Luther King Jnr public holiday.
Locally, no major economic or equities news is expected on Tuesday.
In Australia, the market on Monday closed lower but recovered from solid losses in the middle of the day to be only slightly down.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 10.9 points, or 0.21 per cent, at 5,295 points.
The broader All Ordinaries index was down 8.8 points, or 0.17 per cent, at 5,307.6 points.