Australian stocks: Market closes maore than 1pc lower

MELBOURNE - The Australian share market closed more than one per cent lower amid broad-based selling following a poor lead from Wall Street.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was 45.4 points, or 1.19 per cent lower at 3755.7, while the broader All Ordinaries fell 41.4 points, or 1.09 per cent, to 3753.9.

At 1619 AEST on the Sydney Futures Exchange, the June share price index contract was 41 points lower at 3745 on a volume of 23,187 contracts.

CommSec market analyst Juliette Saly said no sector did particularly well on Thursday.

"We are seeing a sell-off today, and that is really because we had that weak lead coming through from Wall Street and also, of course, more capital raisings playing on our market," Ms Saly said.

Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 173.47 points to 8300.02.

"We have seen quite a bit of a sell-off in the banks, with the ANZ coming out of yesterday's halt," she said.

At the close of trade, the ANZ was down 19 cents to $15.38.

Among the other banks, Commonwealth Bank ended down $1.18 at $33.95, National Australia Bank was off 11 cents at $21.63, Westpac fell 36 cents to $18.44 and Macquarie Group declined 64 cents to $30.54.

Miners followed the market down, with BHP Billiton Ltd falling 63 cents to $34.02.

Shares in Rio Tinto, whose planned sale of a key US coal mine suffered a setback after the US consumer watchdog sought more information on the deal, fell 36 cents to $63.99.

OZ Minerals dropped 4.55 per cent, or four cents, to 84 cents while Fortescue Metals Group dropped seven cents to $2.56.

The spot price of gold at 1644 AEST was US$945.85 per fine ounce, down US$3.10 from Wednesday's local close of US$948.95 per ounce.

Gold stocks ended the day mixed, with Newcrest Mining edging up 12 cents to $32.36 and Lihir Gold up five cents to $3.22, but Newmont Mining 17 cents weaker to $5.78. "The miners have generally been sold off, particularly BHP on generally weaker metals prices, and we are also seeing the energy sector under a little bit of pressure," Ms Saly said.

Among energy stocks Woodside Petroleum rose 37 cents to $42.99 but rival Oil Search ended at $5.35, down six cents.

Origin Energy lost ground, off 10 cents at $15.05, while Santos Ltd ended down eight cents at $14.39.

Shares in Iluka Resources finished down 3.99 per cent, 13 cents, at $3.13 after the company said it was too difficult to predict when its markets would recover.

Tower Australia Group increased their first-half underlying profit by 13 per cent and said they remained positive about the prospect for continued growth in the life insurance market.

Shares in the life insurance company ended up nine cents at $2.49.

Regional pay television provider company Austar United Communications saw its share price drop 3.27 per cent to 74 cents.

Austar chief John Porter said he expected underlying earnings to grow in calendar 2009 by between 10 per cent and 15 per cent.

The price of shares in CSL fell $1.12 to $29.03 amid news US authorities had moved to block its proposed US$3.1 billion acquisition of Talecris Biotherapeutics Inc.

Media stocks were generally stronger, with Fairfax Media rising one cent to $1.11, Consolidated Media putting on three cents to $2.28 and News Corp 10 cents firmer at $13.90 but News Corp's non-voting scrip down one cent at $12.04.

Retailers finished mixed with Wesfarmers gaining four cents to $20.96, Woolworths down 10 cents at $25.35, Harvey Norman losing four cents to $2.90 and David Jones off six cents at $3.54.

Lakes Oil NL was the most traded stock by volume with 89.76 million shares changing hands worth $449,000.

Shares in the company finished steady at 0.5 cents.

Market turnover reached about 2.01 billion, worth almost $5.45 billion, with 411 stocks up, 530 down and 343 unchanged.

- AAP