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SYDNEY - The Australian sharemarket closed relatively unchanged despite a positive start to the day, with strong gains among the miners offset by across-the-board falls.
The S&P/ASX200 index eased 1.4 points to 6251.4. Macquarie Equities client adviser David Halliday said strong commodity prices and a positive Friday close on Wall St gave an initial spur to the market, but falls among industrial stocks dragged the bourse down in the afternoon.
"The resources have held up, and in terms of things to buy they look like the cheapest and best-value stocks in the market at the moment. But as for everything else, it's not so easy.
"Outside of the resources, it's getting harder to find too much value in this market and as such you're seeing the resources move up, but overall the market's coming down because a lot of the industrials look pretty expensive."
The big miners were some of the few stocks to star yesterday, on stronger commodity prices.
The world's biggest miner, BHP Billiton, added A47c to A$31.13, while rival Rio Tinto jumped A$1.43 to A$94.15.
As speculation continues that James Packer-controlled Publishing and Broadcasting will divest itself further of its "old media" assets, shares in the company rose A26c to A$21.22.
- AAP
