The Australian share market has lost ground as commodity price weakness led to losses among the big miners.
Bell Direct equities analyst Julia Lee said the resources sector dragged the local bourse lower.
“The market’s lower mainly because of the miners and because of the falls that we’ve seen in commodity prices overnight,” Ms Lee said.
She said the gold sector had reached its lowest point since 2006, causing Newcrest Mining to hit a 10 year low.
The negative session followed a weak lead from the United States market, and a fall in prices among most base metals.
Global miners BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto fell on the London market overnight in the wake of lower commodities prices.
BHP was 55 cents lower at $37.25, Rio Tinto fell 74 cents to $64.30 and Fortescue Metals was down nine cents at $5.65.
Still, James Hardie shares rose 33 cents to reach an all time high of $12.33 thanks to positive US housing data.
Gold miner Newcrest was one of the worst performers, down 33 cents, or 4.1 per cent, at $7.77.
In the banking sector Westpac lifted one cent to $32.77, ANZ added 13 cents to $32.08, Commonwealth Bank was up 45 cents to $77.30 and National Australia Bank was nine cents higher at $34.49.
KEY FACTS
* At the close on Wednesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was 25.7 points, or 0.48 per cent, lower at 5,324.9.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 24.1 points, or 0.45 per cent, at 5,332.9.
* The December share price index futures contract was 35 points lower at 5,348, with 18,321 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 1.7 billion securities worth $3.6 billion.
