KEY POINTS:
The Australian stock market closed in negative territory today, with the bourse retreating slowly from its earlier Wall Street-inspired highs.
At the close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 15.2 points at 6220.3, while the all ordinaries lost 12.6 points to 6236.
At 1615 AEST on the Sydney Futures Exchange, the September share price index contract was 24 points lower at 6226, on a volume of 25,097 contracts.
CMC Markets analyst David Land said the local bourse started in positive fashion but retreated throughout the day.
"A number of companies have retreated off their highs of the day, it's been quite a significant turnaround in the market overall," Mr Land said.
"We have been watching it slowly unwind over a good part of the day.
"A number of the big banks that have come off their earlier highs and in some cases turned into negative territory, which seems to be weighing quite heavily on the market."
The National Australia Bank lost 20 cents to $38.59, and Commonwealth Bank dipped 13 cents to $55.20, while ANZ added five cents to $28.56 and Westpac gained four cents to $26.85.
The market got off to a strong start following a positive lead from Wall Street overnight, before pulling back from its highs.
The Dow jones industrial average added 180.54 points to 13,308.39, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index put on 19.79 points to 1,471.49 and the Nasdaq rose 38.36 points to 2,597.47.
The big miners were stronger, with BHP Billiton gaining seven cents to $38.50 and rival Rio Tinto picking up 15 cents to $98.22.
Concept Hire picked up 35 cents to $2.70 after the scaffolding firm agreed to an off-market takeover offer from Cape Australia Investments Ltd, valuing it at $101.7 million.
The retailers were mixed, with Coles finding one cent to $14.56, Harvey Norman climbing one cent to $5.70, Woolworths dipping 49 cents to $29.36 and David Jones losing seven cents to $5.06.
Clothes retailer Just Group added six cents to $4.76 after the company issued a positive outlook for the current financial year, following an increase in net profit to $63.9 million for fiscal 2007.
CSR was steady at $3.18 after the company acquired a second glass business, Don Mathieson & Staff Glass Ltd, for $175 million.
The media sector was weaker, with News Corp shedding 42 cents to $26.81, its non-voting shares dropping 42 cents to $25.08, Fairfax losing seven cents to $4.33 and PBL dipping 20 cents to $18.25.
The energy sector was mixed, with Santos adding 17 cents to $13.17, Woodside retreating 18 cents to $45.82 and Oil Search losing four cents to $3.66.
The spot price of gold was higher and at 1626 AEST was trading at US$712.50 an ounce, up US$8.60 an ounce on yesterday's local close.
The gold miners were stronger, with Newmont adding 11 cents to $5.44 and Lihir picking up four cents to $3.34.
Junior explorer Empire Oil & Gas was the most traded stock on the market today with 214.5 million shares changing hands, collectively worth $6.73 million.
The oil and gas explorer was steady at three cents.
Preliminary market turnover reached 2.11 billion, worth a total value of $5.96 billion, with 602 stocks up, 602 down and 358 unchanged.
- AAP