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The Australian share market closed in negative territory despite a positive start as punters looked to bag themselves a bargain after two days of heavy losses.
At the close the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 20.5 points to 6216.4, while the All Ordinaries lost 11.8 points to 6280.8.
At 1615 AEDT on the Sydney Futures Exchange, the December share price index contract was steady at 6208 points on a volume of 64,622 contracts.
The December contract expires tomorrow and the March contract was down two points to 6,219.
CMC Markets senior dealer Dominic Vaughan said the initial jump in the bourse was buoyed by bargain hunters, but he cautioned about continuing volatility in the market.
"We saw the market bounce back from its 100 points close to only 20 points down today, and I think that was a relatively good sign for the market," Mr Vaughan said.
"It's a little bit of stability coming back in, but I don't think we're totally out of the woods at this present time.
"I think leading into Christmas any sort of bad news will negate any positives we've seen out of this market."
The market got off to a positive start following a solid lead from Wall Street overnight.
The Dow Jones industrial average picked up 65.27 points to 13,232.47, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 9.08 points higher to 1,454.98 and the Nasdaq put on 21.57 points to 2,596.03.
Locally, Centro Properties Group gained 40 cents to A$1.205, with the property group indicating it was comfortable about the viability of its business and says it is not in breach of any loan covenants.
Centro was also the most traded stock on the market, with 231.07 million shares changing hands worth A$273.2 million.
The banking sector was weaker, with National Australia Bank dropping 16 cents to A$36.75, ANZ dipping 39 cents to A$26.85, Commonwealth Bank falling A$1.47 to A$58.53 and Westpac losing A$1.01 to A$27.79.
St George Bank shed 86 cents to A$32.60 despite reaffirming its earnings growth target for fiscal 2008 and saying its credit quality remains strong despite the fallout in global debt markets.
Global financial services business Allco Finance Group fell 44 cents to A$5.44 despite assuring investors that it is financially stable.
Insurance Australia Group lost seven cents to A$4.13 after the company downgraded its annual margin guidance, after the company received more than 21,000 claims following severe storms in Sydney earlier this month.
Grain exporter AWB dipped five cents to A$2.66 after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission launched legal action in the Supreme Court of Victoria against six former directors and officers of the company.
The retailers were mixed, with David Jones gaining one cent to A$5.14, Wesfarmers losing eight cents to A$40.66, Woolworths falling 73 cents to A$33.17 and Harvey Norman shedding 11 cents to A$6.57.
The media sector was mixed, with News Corp dropping 18 cents to A$24.11, its non-voting shares adding three cents to A$23.33 and Fairfax losing five cents to A$4.51.
The energy sector was weaker, with Woodside Petroleum shedding 90 cents to A$46.40, Santos retreating 47 cents to A$13.12 and Oil Search dropping one cent to A$4.53.
The big miners were mixed, with Rio Tinto putting on 93 cents to A$130.34 and rival BHP Billiton losing five cents to A$40.05.
Copper and gold miner Oxiana lost 10 cents to A$3.54 after the company approved the US$310 million (A$361.2 million) development of the Martabe gold and silver mine in Indonesia.
The spot price of gold was higher, and at 1631 AEDT was trading at US$801.10 per fine ounce, up US$8.90 an ounce on yesterday's local close.
The gold miners were mixed, with Newcrest adding 18 cents to A$30.56, Newmont picking up 15 cents to A$5.55 and Lihir falling two cents to A$3.16.
Preliminary market turnover reached 1.78 billion worth A$7.25 billion, with 676 stocks up, 578 down and 355 unchanged.
- AAP