Markets end lower after volatile late trading

Rebecca Hyam, On Monday 26 September 2011, 20:52 EST

The Australian share market has given back all of its opening gains in late trading as concerns about the global economy got the better of local investors.
A slump in commodity prices saw resource shares sold off heavily, with gold miners faring particularly badly.
But resilience among the major banks helped limit the broader market's losses.
The All Ordinaries index fell 51 points to 3,928, and the ASX 200 closed down 39 points (1 per cent) to 3,864.
The Australian dollar slipped to a 10-month low and at 5:00pm (AEST) was worth 96.37 US cents.
It was buying 73.53 Japanese yen, 72 euro cents, 62.32 British pence and $NZ1.25.
West Texas crude oil had dropped to $US79.58 a barrel and Tapis was also lower at $US116.99.
Spot gold slipped to a two-month low, plunging around $100 to $US1,549.50 an ounce, hurting locally listed gold miners.
St Barbara tumbled almost 12 per cent, rival miner Newcrest ended almost 9 per cent lower, and Eldorado fell $1.23 (6.75 per cent) to $17.00.
Mining giant Rio Tinto lost almost 4 per cent to $60.20, and BHP Billiton ended the session 60 cents lower at $33.95.
Oil and gas producer Woodside gave up 5 per cent, while Santos fell 45 cents to $10.40.
The financial sector offered some support though; Westpac was out in front with gains of 2.5 per cent, Commonwealth Bank shares finished 1.2 per cent higher, NAB added almost 0.75 per cent, and ANZ edged just over 0.1 per cent higher.
Shares in Woolworths added 20 cents to $24.77 after the company released its annual report, which said the retailer expected a 2- to 6-per-cent rise in its full-year earnings.

2 comments

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Michael 5 hours ago Report Abuse
Wait for the boom, 50,000 now jobs im holding my breath, you rippa i want wonthagi union rates! and better yet we got the best finance minister orrrrr rippa dippa. So where do you get these food stamps they gave out during the great depresion ?
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A Yahoo!7 User 7 hours ago Report Abuse
The problem is not that our market is down 25% since May, the real problem is that it didn't go up in line with other markets previous to this. We had no buffer, and now we are paying a terrible price. Despite this, until a couple of days ago, the government had not made a single comment about the (under) performance of our market, and totally ignored what had been happening for a full six months!
Never again will I invest money under a labor government, financial markets don't like them and it's easy to understand why when their policies cause such harm to businesses large and small.
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Monday, 26 September 2011