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MELBOURNE - The Australian share market closed lower today, dragged back by the big miners and stocks affected by the high value of the Australian dollar.
ABN Amro Morgans private client adviser Simon Ferguson said investors were taking profits from mining and resources stocks after their strong run, and stocks with overseas currency exposure, such as support services firm Brambles, were "knocked around".
Mr Ferguson said that on the positive side, upmarket retailer David Jones lifted after raising its profit forecast for the year.
"The themes that I see are overseas-dominated earnings, retail stocks doing well on the (David Jones) upgrade, and just profit-taking on those that have run pretty hard," Mr Ferguson said.
At the 1615 AEST close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 52.5 points to 6329.1, while the All Ordinaries lost 51.0 points to 6367.2.
On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the September share price index contract was 63 points lower at 6325 on a volume of 22,179 contracts, according to preliminary figures.
Among the major miners, Rio Tinto was 50 cents weaker at A$97.00 as it posted a record second quarter production of iron ore, but mined copper production fell.
Mr Ferguson said on initial reading, the Rio production report looked mixed but investors were more concerned about Rio's USA$38 billion takeover bid for Canadian aluminium producer Alcan.
BHP Billiton fell 76 cents to A$37.43.
Precious and base metals producer Oxiana retreated 12 cents to A$3.85 despite saying it was on track to meet its annual production and cost forecasts.
Mineral sands miner Iluka Resources lost 11 cents to A$5.77 after it downgraded its 2007 full-year forecast earnings by as much as A$45 million as the strong Australian dollar bites into the bottom line.
Oil and gas producer Santos firmed two cents to A$14.02 as it unveiled plans to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant at Gladstone in Queensland at a cost of up to A$7 billion.
Woodside Petroleum sagged 83 cents to A$45.71.
Among the major banks, National Australia Bank dipped four cents to A$40.04, Westpac gained seven cents to A$26.47, ANZ eased two cents to A$29.45, and the Commonwealth Bank shed 29 cents to A$55.66.
In the retail sector, David Jones strengthened by nine cents to A$5.61 after lifting its profit forecast for fiscal 2007 to as much as A$109 million.
Harvey Norman Holdings slipped seven cents to A$5.42, despite posting a 16.5 per cent gain in sales for the year.
Clothing retailer Country Road was steady at A$2.64 after total sales for fiscal 2007 rose by 15.9 per cent.
Coles Group scraped off one cent to A$15.29, and Woolworths dumped 24 cents to A$27.75.
Telco Telstra was off five cents at A$4.62, and Optus-owner Singapore Telecommunications was three cents weaker at A$2.61.
In the media sector, News Corp was 43 cents richer at A$27.98 and its non-voting scrip improved 60 cents to A$25.99 as the board of Dow Jones & Co said it would sign off on a sale to News Corp for USA$5 billion (AA$5.7 billion).
Publishing and Broadcasting was down 24 cents at A$19.35, and Fairfax put on two cents to A$5.01.
Among gold stocks, Newmont was one cent weaker at A$4.70, Newcrest surrendered 49 cents to A$23.86, and Lihir dropped six cents to A$3.07.
The price of gold in Sydney at 1643 AEST was US$668.80, up US$3.65 on yesterday's close.
Among other stocks, business communications company Salmat was down seven cents at A$4.70 after launching a A$318 million friendly takeover bid for information technology company HPAL. HPAL was up three cents at A$2.68.
Listed cash box Babcock & Brown Infrastructure fell three cents to A$1.705 after snapping up a majority stake in Belgian port operator Manuport Group.
The top-traded stock by volume was gold explorer and producer Republic Gold, with 89.22 million shares worth A$2.97 million changing hands.
Republic Gold was 0.5 cents higher at 3.4 cents.
Preliminary national turnover was 1.81 billion shares worth A$6.48 billion, with 697 stocks down, 551 up and 362 unchanged.
On Wall Street overnight, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 20.57 points to a record 13,971.55.
- AAP