Australian shares slipped as ANZ and National Australia Bank paid out their final dividends.
The resulting falls in the two banks’ share prices proved a major drag on the wider market, Morgans equities adviser Alistair McCorquodale said.
“The prices merely reflected that the shareholders, or those people who bought the shares today, would be buying it without the right to that dividend,” he said.
ANZ shares shed $1.42, or 4.2 per cent, to $32.38 and NAB dropped $1.21, or 3.37 per cent, to $34.68.
Their rivals fared better, with Commonwealth up $1.36 to yet another record high at $79.32, but Westpac edged 16 cents lower to $34.23.
Mining giant BHP Billiton gained 15 cents to $38.24, but Rio Tinto dropped 12 cents to $65.48 and Fortescue Metals shed 14 cents to $5.70.
“BHP is a little bit more diversified than Rio so it tends to be not as correlated with those base metal prices,” Mr McCorquodale said.
Meanwhile, Ausdrill, one of Australia’s largest drilling companies, fell 39.5 cents, or 28.7 per cent, to 98 cents after it said annual profit would fall heavily because of weaker mining activity.
“It just continues to provide an indication that it’s pretty tough out there in the mining services area – you’ve got the big miners really pulling back on their capital expenditure,” Mr McCorquodale said.
Telstra dropped three cents to $5.15, but the healthcare sector performed well, with Ramsay Health Care a standout, adding $1.20 to $39.05.
KEY FACTS
* At the close on Thursday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 11.8 points, or 0.22 per cent, at 5,422.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 10.6 points, or 0.2 per cent, at 5,415.4.
* The December share price index futures contract was six points higher at 5,424, with 25,452 contracts traded.
* The price of gold in Sydney was $US1,319.26 per fine ounce, up $US5.96 on Wednesday’s closing price of $US1,313.30.
* National turnover was 1.9 billion securities worth $6.3 billion.
