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SYDNEY - Australian stocks plummeted today, dragged down by a booming Aussie dollar and resource stocks struggling under the weight of weaker commodities prices.
By the 1615 AEST close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 had dispensed with yesterday's record gains and was down 71.8 points to 6165.1, while the all ordinaries also dropped, shedding 66.7 points to 6148.3.
On the Sydney Futures Exchange the June share price index contract closed 72 points lower at 6183 on a volume of 21,896 contracts.
Director of equities at ABN Amro Morgans Brisbane Bill Chatterton said profit-taking led to bloodletting on the local market.
"There is a fair bit of red about the place, everybody shared in the red I guess, but particularly some of the very big movers recently have just come back quite a bit today," he said.
"It's not surprising that on occasions people are going to take a little bit of money off the table.
"I don't see the market falling in a hole or doing anything like that, but we're going to have times when the market becomes a bit more volatile than normal. And we're seeing a little bit of this at the moment."
Mr Chatterton laid some of the blame for today's losses at the foot of the rising Aussie dollar.
The dollar continues to trade above 83 US cents, and today it reached its highest level since August 27, 1990.
"This Aussie dollar has been rising, so there might be a bit of negativity on the back of that firming currency," Mr Chatterton said.
"From a local perspective, it puts a bit of a ding in those companies that have a lot of overseas exposure."
Weaker commodity prices overnight also affected the major miners, which suffered significant losses.
Despite Rio Tinto today announcing a 12 per cent increase in first quarter iron ore production, the miner was savaged by strong selling.
Rio fell A$1.95 to A$82.55, and rival BHP Billiton 78 cents to A$29.62.
Meanwhile, Rural Press shareholders today voted in favour of a merger with Fairfax, to create a $9 billion print and online media group.
A scheme meeting of ordinary shareholders resulted in 99.62 per cent of votes being cast in favour of the A$2.8 billion transaction.
Rural Press gained six cents to A$14.04 while Fairfax fell six cents to A$5.12.
Elsewhere in the media sector, News Corp shed 24 cents to A$29.80 and its non-voting scrip declined 30 cents to A$27.90.
PBL, owner of Channel Nine, bucked the downward trend, putting on 50 cents to A$20.50.
Seven Network finished up one cent to A$11.26 as Ten added two cents to A$3.14.
Among the major banks, NAB fell 61 cents to A$43.41, CBA shed 60 cents to A$52.70, ANZ lost 37 cents to A$30.90 and Westpac dropped 39 cents to A$27.10.
Higher crude prices did little to lift local energy stocks, with Woodside Petroleum finishing 60 cents poorer at A$39.55.
Oil Search also lost ground, down one cent to A$3.66, but Santos brightened 30 cents to A$11.15.
In telecommunications, Telstra chief executive Sol Trujillo said the company was no closer to reaching an agreement with the federal government about reviving its planned A$4 billion high speed broadband network.
Telstra scrapped plans for the so-called fibre-to-the-node network last year after a stand-off with the ACCC over the prices it could charge rivals to use the technology.
Shares in the telco were slightly stronger at the close, up three cents to A$4.77, while Singapore Telecommunications, the owner of rival Optus, fell eight cents to A$2.69.
At 1640 AEST, the spot price of gold in Sydney was trading US$4.95 lower than yesterday's close at US$685.50 per fine ounce.
The gold miners reacted accordingly, with Newcrest down 28 cents to A$22.80, and Newmont eleven cents lower to A$5.28. Lihir Gold remained in a trading halt, last trading at A$3.36.
Among the retailers, Woolworths dropped 35 cents to A$28.55, rival Coles Group fell two cents to A$17.11, and upmarket retailer David Jones sagged 12 cents to A$4.59.
The most traded stock of the day by volume was Newsat Ltd, with 71.69 million shares worth A$573,000 million changing hands, as shares in the multimedia company rose 0.1 cents to 0.9 cents.
Preliminary market turnover was 1.84 billion shares worth A$6.87 billion, with 482 companies rising, 784 falling and 336 unchanged.
- AAP