Australian shares have weakened for the fifth consecutive session after a key consumer sentiment reading fell to a five-month low.
The leading indices fell further when Holden announced it will cease manufacturing in 2017, another major blow to Australian industry.
Earlier in the day, the Westpac-Melbourne Institute confidence barometer for December showed a 4.8 per cent slide, which caused a slide in banking stocks, City Index senior market analyst Kara Ordway said.
“It probably created some general poor feeling in terms of sentiment this morning but that poor sentiment was already there,” she said.
“Financials, obviously, were on those record highs over the past couple of weeks so there was always bound to be some consolidation going into year end.”
Commonwealth Bank shed 76 cents to $74.50, Westpac lost 31 cents to $30.88, National Australia Bank dropped 30 cents to $32.87 and ANZ shed 19 cents to $30.59.
Resources stocks were dragged down by miner OZ Minerals’ forecast of lacklustre production levels for next year.
OZ Minerals’ shares dropped 44 cents, or 14.2 per cent, to $2.65.
BHP Billiton lost 64 cents to $36.18, Rio Tinto shed 40 cents to $65.77 and Fortescue Metals lost three cents to $5.60.
But gold miner Newcrest added 56 cents, or eight per cent, to $7.55 as the price of the precius metal appreciated.
KEY FACTS
* At 1615 AEDT on Wednesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 39.4 points, or 0.77 per cent, at 5,104.2 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 36.7 points, or 0.71 per cent, at 5,109.5 points.
* The December share price index futures contract was down 39 points at 5,108 points, with 30,455 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 1.47 billion securities worth $3.74 billion.
