The Australian share market has closed lower, hurt by falls in financial and resource giants, including the Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and Rio Tinto.
The benchmark S&P ASX200 index fell 0.16 per cent as investors banked some profits in the absence of a strong lead from Wall Street, IG market analyst Angus Nicholson said.
“A lot of investors have been piling out of utility stocks and that’s the phenomenon we’re seeing globally. So in this lower volatility environment, a lot of these lower volatility stocks are much less appealing,” he said.
There was also some profit taking, with a general feeling in the market that investors are waiting for a “little bit more of a catalyst” to make further gains from here, Mr Nicholson said.
The Commonwealth Bank was the biggest loser among the market’s 20 biggest companies, on concerns about the outlook after chief executive Ian Narev warned of tough times ahead after Australia’s biggest bank delivered a record annual profit.
The stock was also hurt by some profit taking after strong gains in recent days, Mr Nicholson said.
CBA closed $1.01 lower at $77.40 and Westpac fell 18 cents to $30.81.
But ANZ and National Australia found support among investors, gaining 31 cents to $26.75 and one cent to $26.83, respectively.
Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Woodside Petroleum lost ground on the back of lower oil prices and mixed base metal prices overnight, Patersons Securities economist Tony Farnham said.
Rio dropped 33 cents to $50.57, BHP lost 15 cents to $20.44 and Woodside fell 14 cents to $27.56.
In company news, AGL Energy shed 78 cents or 3.8 per cent to $19.58 after posting a worse-than-expected annual loss of $408 million, weighed down by costs from its exit from gas exploration.
Fairfax Media dropped 4.5 cents to 95 cents after posting a full-year loss of $893.5 million, the result dragged down by previously announced writedowns.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 0.02 per cent higher, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose 0.04 per cent and 0.24 per cent, respectively.
KEY FACTS:
* The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was down 8.8 points, or 0.16 per cent, at 5,543.7 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 8.5 points, or 0.15 per cent, at 5,628.2 points.
* The September share price index futures contract was down two points at 5,488 points, with 26,549 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 2.48 billion securities traded, worth $5.54 billion.
