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Aust stocks fall on Greek and China woes

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The Australian share market has tumbled on concerns about China’s equities and Greece’s future after voters rejected Europe’s bailout terms.

The major indices were down 1.14 and 1.17 per cent at the close, an improvement on earlier falls, Bell Direct equities analyst Julia Lee said.

The market suffered falls during morning trade of more than 1.8 per cent, but strong gains on the Shanghai Composite Index had helped offset the falls during early afternoon trade.

“The fallout from the vote in Greece has created a risk off environment,” Ms Lee said.

Greeks overwhelmingly voted against accepting the bailout package from its European creditors in a referendum on Sunday but it’s unclear what will happen next and if this would lead to a Greek exit from the eurozone.

However, Ms Lee said the Chinese government’s emergency measures to bolster its share market and the Chinese’s markets reaction to those measures had more of an influence on Australian equities during afternoon trade.

“The Shanghai Composite had a stunning open but increased worries about the Chinese market and the volatility we are seeing has been a strong factor at the close,” she said.

All major sectors of the local market were in the red with the exception of gold miners, which tend to do well during periods of uncertainty due to the metal’s safe haven status.

BHP Billiton fell 58 cents to $26.01, Rio Tinto dropped $1.34 to $51.16 and Fortescue Metals was 10.5 cents weaker at $1.715.

Gold miner Newcrest was up 33 cents, or 2.63 per cent, at $12.88 and Evolution Mining was up 8.5 cents, or 7.39 per cent at $1.235.

Commonwealth Bank shed 36 cents to $86.30, Westpac declined 27 cents to $32.49, National Australia Bank lost 24 cents to $33.47 and ANZ fell 25 cents to $32.21.

Energy giant AGL was down 28 cents, or 1.77 per cent, at $15.54 after flagging $600 million in writedowns.

KEY FACTS

* At 1615 AEST on Monday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 63.3 points, or 1.14 per cent, at 5,475 points.

* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 64.7 points, or 1.17 per cent, at 5,463.3 points.

* The September share price index futures contract was down 65 points at 5,422 points, with 22,196 contracts traded.

* National turnover was 1.06 billion securities worth $3.13 billion.