The share market is down and slipping lower as the big miners face more falls in iron ore prices.
Chinese trade kicked off its day with falls in the spot price of iron ore, Australia’s biggest export, down between two and three per cent to $US82 per tonne.
“There’s been a reasonable ramp up in the last 20 minutes,” IG markets senior analyst Evan Lucas said slightly before noon.
“The banks have followed the miners.”
At noon, global miner BHP Billiton was down 34.5 cents, or 0.96 per cent, to $35.755, Rio Tinto had shed 34 cents, or 0.55 per cent, to $61.43 and iron ore pure play Fortescue Metals lost 7.5 cents, or 1.86 per cent, to $3.965.
Commonwealth Bank slipped 27 cents, or 0.33 per cent, to $81.27, ANZ dropped 13 cents, or 0.39 per cent, to $33.35, Westpac fell one cent, or 0.29 per cent, to $34.60 and National Australia Bank dropped two cents, or 0.06 per cent, to $34.61.
The market was also pulled down by several companies paying out dividends.
Among those were, supermarket operator Woolworths, down 82 cents to $35.66, and steelmaker Arrium, off 2.75 cents to 70.25 cents.
Meanwhile, consumer confidence is down, according to the Westpac Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment released on Wednesday.
According to the index, consumer confidence fell by 4.5 per cent in September to 94 points.
Discretionary retailer, JB Hi-Fi was two cents lower at $17.07 while Harvey Norman dropped 4.5 cents to $3.725.
KEY FACTS
* At 1215 AEST on Wednesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 43.0 points, or 0.77 per cent, at 5,564.9 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 37.0 points, or 0.66 per cent, at 5,566.1 points.
* The September share price index futures contract was down 37 points at 5,566 points, with 14,863 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 892 million securities worth $1.9 billion.
