Australian shares are weaker as cautious investors wait for direction from the US Federal Reserve on its stimulus program for the world’s biggest economy.
IG market analyst Evan Lucas said lower iron ore prices had weighed on the big miners and contributed to weakness on the local market, but now it was a waiting game.
“All eyes will be on Ben Bernanke at 4am (AEST) tomorrow morning,” Mr Lucas said.
Trading volumes remained low on Wednesday, down around 30 per cent on the long term average.
“It was really a dusty day without a huge amount of news out there,” he said.
Some analysts predict the conclusion of the US central bank’s two-day meeting will reveal the dilution of quantitative easing measures.
Among the big miners, BHP fell five cents to $36.09, Rio dropped $1.06 to $61.70 and Fortescue Metals Group shed 15 cents to $4.47.
In the energy sector Woodside shares were 31 cents lower at $38.43 while Santos shares closed flat at $15.00 after NSW environmentalists demanded information on waste water from eight new coal seam gas wells in the NSW Pilliga.
The banking sector was mixed after Reserve Bank of Australia assistant governor Malcolm Edey said talk of a local housing bubble was “unrealistically alarmist”.
National Australia Bank fell four cents to $34.64, and ANZ dropped six cents to $30.73.
The Commonwealth Bank had added 38 cents to $73.98 and Westpac was up five cents $32.52.
WorleyParsons shares rose four cents to $23.07 after the engineering group won a contract to build an oil sands project in Canada.
KEY FACTS
* At the close on Wednesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was 13.1 points, or 0.25 per cent, lower at 5,238.1.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 14.8 points, or 0.28 per cent, at 5,230.4.
* The September share price index futures contract was 16 points lower at 5,246, with 91,830 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 1.6 billion securities worth $3.9 billion.
