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MELBOURNE - The Australian stock market closed mixed, with losses from the big miners weighing heavily on the bourse.
At the close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index finished 1.6 points lower at 6481.4 while the all ordinaries again closed in record territory.
The all ordinaries index added half a point to close at a 6491.4, eclipsing the previous record of 6490.9, which was set yesterday.
At 1615 AEST on the Sydney Futures Exchange, the December share price index contract was 23 points lower at 6536, on a volume of 16,769 contracts.
CMC Markets analyst David Land said a strong run from the gold miners and the finance sector managed to counteract some of the negative effect by the big miners.
"Some positive moves out of the big end of the finance sector did quite well today, notably the big banks were really key to that," Mr Land said.
"We also have a bit of life in the big gold miners, like Newcrest and Lihir rebounding from yesterday, which helped the market along as well.
"This really counterbalanced that big weight that dragged down on the market, particularly from BHP but also to a lesser extent from Rio."
Major miner BHP Billiton dropped A$1.44 or 3.23 per cent to A$43.16, while rival Rio Tinto lost A$2.04 or 1.89 per cent to A$106.00.
BHP Billiton lost ground after rumours it was sitting on the world's largest gold resource at Olympic Dam in South Australia proved misguided, following the release of updated figures in its annual report.
The market got off to a sluggish start following a mixed lead from Wall Street overnight.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 19.59 points to 13,778.65, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 0.52 points to 1,517.21 and the the Nasdaq picked up 15.50 points to 2,683.45.
The banking sector was stronger, with ANZ adding 23 cents to A$28.92, Commonwealth Bank finding four cents to A$56.44, National Australia Bank gaining 41 cents to A$39.01 and Westpac putting on 49 cents to A$27.80.
St George Bank picked up 25 cents to A$34.85 after it announced a new partnership with BP, which will result in 200 new St George-branded automated teller machines (ATMs) at BP service station outlets across Australia.
The retailers were mixed, with Woolworths adding 14 cents to A$29.64, Coles picking up 11 cents to A$15.14 and Harvey Norman gaining nine cents to A$5.93.
David Jones shed seven cents to A$4.88 despite the top-end retailer posting a big jump in annual net profit to A$109.52 million.
Beverages giant Coca-Cola Amatil gained five cents to A$9.50 after the company made an offer to buy Golden Circle.
Nufarm lost A$1.09 to A$14.25 after the agricultural chemicals firm posted a dip in net profit to A$120.9 million.
The media sector was mixed, with PBL adding 17 cents to A$19.17, Fairfax picking up three cents to A$4.56, News Corp losing 15 cents to A$26.52 and its non-voting shares shedding 30 cents to A$24.81.
The energy sector was mixed, with Oil Search finding two cents to A$4.40, Santos shedding five cents to A$14.75 and Woodside dropping 41 cents to A$48.69.
The spot price of gold was higher and at 1628 AEST was trading at USA$732.20 an ounce, up USA$4.30 an ounce on yesterday's local close.
The gold miners were mixed, with Newcrest putting on A$1.13 to A$28.41, Lihir finding 15 cents to A$3.93 and Newmont shedding three cents to A$5.50.
Empire Oil & Gas was the most traded stock on the market today, with 333.05 million shares changing hands, collectively worth A$6.48 million.
Preliminary market turnover reached 2.13 billion, worth a total A$6.54 billion, with 688 stocks up, 584 stocks down and 334 unchanged.
- AAP