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MELBOURNE - The Australian share market fell heavily on Thursday in its biggest one-day fall so far this calendar year.
Resources stocks were hammered after United States markets dropped sharply overnight amid worries over the depth of the economic recession.
At the 1615 AEDT close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index had fallen 157.5 points, or 4.27 per cent, to 3,529.5 and the broader All Ordinaries index had retreated 147.5 points, or 4.07 per cent, to 3,476.8.
On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the March share price index futures contract was 160 points lower at 3,505 on a volume of 30,001 contracts, according to preliminary calculations.
"Off hand, I would say we haven't had a worse day in the market so far this year," Austock Securities senior client adviser and strategist Michael Heffernan said.
"With commodity markets looking gloomy, the resources sector, BHP and Rio are being slaughtered and the banks are reasonably better (by comparison), but they're still down."
The Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday released data showing unemployment rising to 4.5 per cent from 4.4 per cent, and analysts expect worse to come as the economy and business conditions deteriorate further in 2009.
IG Markets analyst Ben Potter said the local market had been spooked by the sharp fall in US markets, lower prices for base metals in London and analyst and broker downgrades for various blue-chip stocks.
"The market looks like it is gathering some momentum to the downside," Mr Potter said.
He said investors were not feeling confident that the corporate earnings season in the US or the reporting season in Australia would be positive, and no one knew where the catalyst for a sustained turnaround would come from.
In the resources sector, global miner BHP Billiton descended $2.04, or 6.59 per cent, to $28.90.
Rio Tinto surrendered $3.31, or 8.15 per cent, to $37.30 as it delivered a significant drop in iron ore output during the fourth quarter.
Redbank Mines lifted 0.1 cents to 1.8 cents as it placed its namesake copper mine in the Northern Territory on care and maintenance.
Oil and gas producer Woodside Petroleum was $1.60 lower at $34.05 and Santos backtracked 29 cents to $13.80.
Blue Energy eased 1.5 cents to 18 cents as it said it was seeking partners to assist in exploring its coal seam gas acreage.
Amid the major banks, National Australia Bank lost $1.07 to $19.60, Commonwealth Bank sagged $1.11 to $27.31, ANZ dumped 76 cents to $14.57 and Westpac weakened 59 cents to $16.16.
On Wall Street overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 248.90 points, or 2.95 per cent, to 8,199.66 on dismal retail sales data and renewed concerns over the health of banks and other companies set to report quarterly results.
MELBOURNE In the gold sector, Newmont found three cents at $5.42, Newcrest stepped back $1.75 to $28.25, and Lihir gave away 11 cents to $2.55.
The price of gold in Sydney at 1625 AEDT was US$809.00 per fine ounce, down US$17.65 on yesterday's close of US$826.65.
Among media stocks, News Corp fell 97 cents to $13.01 and its non-voting stock lost 92 cents to $12.13.
Consolidated Media weakened 12 cents to $1.86 and Fairfax sagged 17.5 cents to $1.475.
Retailer Woolworths shed 66 cents to $26.26. Wesfarmers, which owns Coles, was off 86 cents to $16.13.
Telco Telstra was 12 cents poorer at $3.61 and Optus-owner Singapore Telecommunications worsened 13 cents to $2.46.
Among other stocks, Centro Properties Group was in a trading halt as it said it would announce in the next four days whether its lenders had granted the group another extension to repayments for $6 billion of debt. Centro Properties last traded at 12 cents.
The top-traded stock by volume was Telstra, with 41.7 million shares worth $152.4 million changing hands.
Preliminary national turnover was 1.07 billion shares worth $3.02 billion, with 713 stocks down, 204 up and 247 unchanged.
- AAP
