The sharemarket’s run of seven straight days of gains is over, as a weaker iron ore price weighed on the resources sector.

The market opened with gains and hit its highest level since mid-2008 during the day, before investors became nervous.

IG chief market strategist Chris Weston said as soon as the bulls pushed the market to historic highs, the bears then smacked the market in an aggressive fashion.

“We’ve got reporting season out of the way and a lot of good news was priced into stocks, and China has been under a bit of pressure and the iron ore price has come off,” he told AAP.

Among miners exposed to the iron ore price, BHP Billiton dropped 28 cents to $39.10, Rio Tinto shed 93 cents to $68.62 and Fortescue Metals lost 15 cents to $5.84.

The big four banks were relatively flat, with Westpac down 15 cents to $33.42, Commonwealth Bank down nine cents to $75.27, NAB up eight cents to $34.51 and ANZ two cents higher at $32.02.

Qantas shares shed half a cent to $1.235, as speculation continued about how many thousands of jobs the airline is set to cut, and the federal government said it was drafting laws to remove its foreign ownership limits.

GrainCorp shares dropped four cents to $7.77 after the company said it expects a fall in its full year profit.

QBE was one of the better performers, despite posting a full year loss, as the result was not worse than the company had forecast.

Its shares gained 62 cents to $12.27.

KEY FACTS

* At the close on Tuesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 6.4 points, or 0.12 per cent, at 5,433.8.

* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 6.1 points, or 0.11 per cent, lower at 5,444.

* The March share price index futures contract was 13 points lower at 5,410, with 25,954 contracts traded.

* National turnover was 2.05 billion securities worth $5.3 billion.