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MELBOURNE - The Australian sharemarket ended the day in the red as expected, as a negative lead from Wall Street gave local investors the jitters.
At the close, the S&P/ASX200 index was down 52.9 points to 6329.7.
Macquarie private client adviser Helen Spencer said there was little doubt
that the overseas lead had injected shakiness and nervousness into the local market.
"It was down a lot lower in earlier trade but recovered somewhat.
"It was patchy trade and a lot of the companies with overseas earnings are getting discounted at the moment and there were a few stocks that went ex-dividend, so there was a little bit of that in the marketplace."
Spencer said that while the move downwards was "certainly not a correction", investors were showing caution in the market.
Among the big falls were the diversified miners, with BHP Billiton backtracking A44c to A$34.94, rival Rio Tinto dropping A39c to A$98.51 and mid-tier miner Oxiana retreating A5c to A$3.61.
Banks weakened, with Westpac A29c poorer at A$25.69, and ANZ down A18c at A$29.30, but NAB gained A14c to A$41.24.
Shares in Valad Property Group remained in a trading halt, having last traded at A$2.12, due to a capital raising for a A$2 billion buy of UK funds management company Scarborough.
Woodside Petroleum shrugged off rumours of a possible takeover saying its future as an independent entity is very bright, but the comments sent its shares down A51c to A$46.19.
The main culprit on the local bourse was Wall Street, with US stocks taking a tumble on Friday to wrap up their worst week since a global sell-off in February.
Retailers struggled to make gains, with Woolworths down A25c to A$27.35, and Coles losing A12c to A$16.41. Media interests were lower also, with Publishing and Broadcasting dipping A24c to A$19.48, News Corp falling A27c to A$27.82,
Southern Cross Broadcasting managed a A4c gain to A$15.75, after star broadcaster John Laws announced that he will retire later this year, with hopes the end of his star salary will result in cost savings.
The most traded stock of the day was iron ore and base metals explorer Admiralty Resources. Its stock ended A3.5c higher at A24.5c.
Earlier in the day it was issued a query from the stock exchange after the sharp rise in its share price.
Admiralty responded by saying it knew of no reason for the rise.
- AAP