Close The Australian sharemarket has closed lower on broad-based falls after fresh worries about Greece’s debt problems and as the bourse digests local earnings results.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index fell 54.4 points, or 1.2 per cent, at 4594.1, while the broader All Ordinaries index lost 51 points, or 1.1 per cent, to 4614.9. Among the main sub-indexes, materials were down 1.7 per cent, financial shares fell 0.8 per cent and energy stocks lost 1.5 per cent.
The benchmark index had risen as high as 4689 early as investors cheered US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke’s comments that interest rates would be kept at very low levels for an extended period.
But the mood soured after Standard and Poor’s said it may downgrade Greece’s BBB+ rating by one or two notches within a month because of downside risks to growth that could hinder the country’s deficit-cutting plan.
Economic data, which showed that business investments rose past all expectations, also weighed on the market as the figures raised the chance the central bank would hike interest rates next week.
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EL&C Baillieu Stockbroking director Richard Morrow said many investors were staying on the sidelines while international events unfolded and local earnings results were digested.
‘‘There are some overseas stories referring to the Greek issue, which might bubble up again tonight, and it is weighing down on the market,’’ Mr Morrow said. ‘‘There has been such a flood of company announcements that people are trying to come to grips with those.”
Greece ground to a halt with mass strikes to protest fresh austerity measures.The European Commission said it would take the country to court over inaction in recovering state aid given as illegal tax exemptions.
Mr Morrow said the sharp fall in first half profits from transport and logistics group Toll Holdings had spooked some investors. Toll shares closed down $1.55 or 17.9 per cent, to $7.10.
Big miners fall
Among the major miners BHP Billiton was down 43 cents, or 1.1 per cent, to $40.45 and rival Rio Tinto lost $1.00, or 1.4 per cent, to $69.40.
Gold miners fell as the price of the precious metal weakened. Lihir Gold dropped 11 cents to $2.58 and Newcrest fell $1.51 to $30.75.
OZ Minerals was off 2 cents to $1.03 after it reported a loss of $517.3 million for the 12 months to December 31 but said its sole asset, the Prominent Hill copper and gold mine, was performing strongly.
Banks were mostly weaker.
Commonwealth Bank was down 82 cents, or 1.5 per cent, at $53.18, ANZ was off 27 cents to $22.25, Westpac down 7 cents to $25.69 and Macquarie Group off $1.13 to $45.20.
National Australia Bank bucked the trend to rise 8 cents.
Among the energy producers Origin Energy fell 30 cents to $16.50 after telling the market underlying net profit for its first half rose 28 per cent.
Woodside Petroleum fell 22 cents to $43.10, Oil Search eased 1 cent to $5.28 and Santos was off 26 cents to $13.01.
Media stocks were mixed. News Corp was up 9 cents to $17.71 and its non-voting scrip rose 12 cents to $15.02.
Fairfax lost 0.5 cents to $1.695 and Consolidated Media fell 9 cents to $3.14.
Mixed retail
Major retailers were mixed, with Coles owner Wesfarmers falling 59 cents to $31.16 and rival Woolworths declining 40 cents to $25.45. Myer fell 1 cent to $3.29, David Jones was also off 1 cent at $4.86, but Harvey Norman gained 6 cents to $3.77.
Travel agency group Flight Centre almost doubled its first half net profit but it finished down 39 cents, or 2.1 per cent, at $18.55.
Despite the broader market downturn, Insurance Australia Group rose 3 cents to $3.98, after it managed to turn around its fortunes and post a first half profit jump.
The top-traded stock by volume was Acclaim Exploration, with 542.74 million shares worth $10.71 million changing hands. Its shares were up 0.8 cents, or 66.7 per cent, at 2.0 cents.
Preliminary national turnover was 2.88 billion shares worth $5.92 billion, with 378 stocks up, 687 down and 338 unchanged.
End of season
Tomorrow is the last big day of this earnings season, with ANZ giving a trading update, while Harvey Norman and Woolworths will provide first-half results.
“We’ve had the bulk of our reporting season which has been generally in line with expectations or better,” said Wilson HTM Investment head of private wealth management Derek Growns. “Now it’s the old story of ‘The news is built into the shareprices’.”
“We’ll suffer from lack of local news as we always do after reporting seasons and on a day-to-day basis we will really be tied to the offshore news,” he said.
AAP, with BusinessDay
