The Australian share market is trading lower as investors react to the political impasse over the United States’ debt ceiling.
“The American debt ceiling and political imbroglio has had an effect on our market today,” Lonsec senior client adviser Michael Heffernan said.
“We’re getting knocked around a bit because of US jitters.
“It’s hard to find a riser in the top 20 stocks – Newcrest and Westfield are the only two that are going up.”
The US the government is headed for a partial shutdown that will close services deemed non-essential, unless the Republicans and Democrats can strike a deal to keep government money flowing.
Congressional Republicans said on Sunday that they would keep using an otherwise routine federal funding bill to try to attack President Barack Obama’s health care law.
In other news, there was a slight improvement in Chinese manufacturing conditions in September, according to the HSBC Purchasing Managers Index (PMI).
On the local market, miner BHP Billiton was down 50 cents at $35.86, Rio Tinto had lost $1.44 to $61.85 and Fortescue Metals was 14 cents lower at $4.80.
Copper miner OZ Minerals was up 12 cents at $4.53, due to reports mining giant Glencore Xstrata was considering a takeover bid.
OZ Minerals has said it has not received any offer from Glencore Xstrata.
Gold miner Newcrest was 22.5 cents richer at $11.695.
Among the big banks, ANZ had dropped 42 cents to $31.10, Commonwealth was down $1.09 to $72.07, Westpac had surrendered 47 cents to $32.83 and National Australia Bank was 55 cents lower at $34.56.
Westfield was four cents higher at $10.97.
KEY FACTS
* At 1218 AEST on Monday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 69.5 points, or 1.31 per cent, at 5,237.6 points
* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 67.5 points, or 1.27 per cent, at 5,234.8 points.
* The December share price index futures contract was 74 points lower at 5,235 points, with 13,358 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 694 million securities worth $1.1 billion.
