The Australian share market has closed lower but has clawed back some earlier heavy losses linked to US interest rate rise fears.
The market dipped more than one per cent during morning trade after Wall Street dropped sharply overnight as investors worried about a mid-year interest rate hike following a strong uptick in jobs.
“Concerns about the US increasing interest rates from zero is no reason for the Australian share market to fall on its knees,” Phillip Capital senior client adviser Michael Heffernan said.
“Some people realised that, got some bargains early in the day and we’ve finished up better than expected.”
The stronger US dollar has weakened commodity prices, putting more pressure on mining stocks.
Diversified miner BHP Billiton also went ex-dividend on Wednesday, dropping in value and weighing heavily on the broader market.
BHP dropped $1.58, or 4.95 per cent, to $30.33, Rio Tinto shed 68 cents, or 1.16 per cent, to $57.87 and iron ore miner Fortescue Metals was down seven cents, or 3.47 per cent, at $1.95.
Woodside Petroleum fell 48 cents, or 1.38 per cent, to $34.41, while oil and gas explorer Santos was flat at $7.33.
Among the big banks, Commonwealth Bank was down 16 cents at $90.52, Westpac slipped 17 cents to $37.50, ANZ was eight cents weaker at $35.22 and National Bank shed 20 cents to $37.56.
Telstra gained two cents at $6.22.
Shares in Gold Coast theme park owner Ardent Leisure Group have dropped more than 19 per cent, or 46.5 cents to $1.965 a day after announcing former editor of Cleo and The Australian Women’s Weekly Deborah Thomas is its new chief executive.
KEY FACTS
* At 1615 AEDT on Wednesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 31 points, or 0.53 per cent, at 5,793.2.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 31 points, or 0.54 per cent, at 5,763.3.
* The March share price index futures contract was down 20 points at 5,790 with 29,228 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 1.57 billion securities worth $4.37 billion.
