The Australian share market has closed slightly lower in choppy trading, after the United States government partially closed down because Congress failed to agree upon a new budget.
Several factors were pulling the Australian market in different directions on Tuesday, but the main influence had been developments in the US, Invast Securities senior technical strategist Vito Henjoto said.
“We’ve had the US government shutting down today. The whole financial market is looking into it,” he said.
“The Australian market is largely clueless (on which direction to take).
“A lot of Australian traders are going to be looking at what happens with the Dow Jones tonight.”
The White House budget office on Tuesday directed federal agencies to shut down because funding from the US Congress had stopped.
Better than expected Australian retail spending figures had a positive influence on local shares when they were released late in the morning.
The data showed a 0.4 per cent rise in August.
In the resources sector, BHP Billiton was 25 cents lower at $35.49 and Rio Tinto fell 67 cents to $61.07.
Among the major banks, ANZ added six cents to $30.84, Commonwealth Bank rose 14 cents to $71.35, National Australia Bank found nine cents to $34.41 and Westpac eased 19 cents to $32.54.
In the retail sector, David Jones gained four cents to $2.93, Harvey Norman added seven cents to 3.25, but Myer reversed five cents to $2.56.
Leighton was 21 cents higher at $19.46 after it announced several new contracts for construction work.
KEY FACTS
* At the close on Tuesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 12.1 points, or 0.23 per cent, at 5,206.8 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 11.4 points, or 0.22 per cent, at 5,206.3 points.
* The December share price index futures contract was 23 points lower at 5,200 points, with 26,939 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 1.42 billion securities worth $3.3 billion.
