The Australian share market has closed slightly lower, following falls in resource stocks.
At 1615 AEST on Tuesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 13.7 points, or 0.32 per cent, at 4,288.6 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index had fallen 13.9 points, or per cent, to 4,368.6 points.
On the ASX 24, the June share price index futures contract was 10 points lower at 4,293 points, with 26,384 contracts traded, according to preliminary calculations.
IG Markets analyst Stan Shamu said the afternoon session had started strongly after the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) released the minutes of its April 3 board meeting, paving the way for a cut in interest rates.
“That was pretty positive for markets but quite negative for the Aussie dollar which lost some ground following that,” he said.
At 1621 AEST the Australian dollar was trading at 103.18 US cents down from 103.53 US cents at 0630 AEST.
However, Mr Shamu said the announcement of a drop in China’s foreign direction investment figures on Tuesday afternoon caused falls for Australian resource companies.
“We saw foreign direction investment figures fall about 2.8 per cent for the quarter which was quite negative for markets because it showed there might be a drop in confidence in the Chinese economy,” he said.
“We have seen most of the miners come off because of that.”
Rio Tinto also experienced drops because of its announcement that wet weather during the March quarter hampered production across its New South Wales and Queensland coal mines, and further impacts were expected from delays in removing overburden or waste material.
BHP Billiton closed 0.47 per cent lower at $34.15, Rio Tinto closed 0.75 per cent lower at $64.70 and Fortescue was 1.03 per cent down at $5.79 at close.
Mr Shamu said there were some gains across the healthcare sector, with CSL gaining 1.65 per cent to $36.87 and Telstra remained resilient, closing only slightly lower at 0.3 per cent to $3.36.
National turnover was 1.723 billion securities worth $3.698 billion, with 362 stocks up, 587 down and 398 unchanged.
