The Australian share market has finished lower, weighed down by mining and banking stocks.
CMC Markets analyst Ric Spooner said the Australian share market was a bit softer on Monday following a fall in oil, gold, copper and iron ore prices in overseas trading.
“We’ve been led down by the big miners,” Mr Spooner said.
“There’s a bit of nervousness creeping in.”
He said valuations were broadly near their highs and the sharemarket had been trading inside a range.
“We seem to be at a level where the market is reluctant to take things further,” he said.
While there was room to be nervous, there was no bad news to justify a big selloff, he said.
“The net result is that we’ve found a level for a while,” he said.
The big miners suffered the heaviest losses, with BHP Billiton down 48 cents, or 2.5 per cent, at $18.37, Rio Tinto dropped $1.04, or 2.3 per cent, to $44.00 and Fortescue Metals fell 12 cents, or 3.9 per cent, to $2.91.
Steelmaker Bluescope Steel jumped 43 cents, or 7.3 per cent, to $6.28 after it lifted its second-half earnings guidance.
Banking stocks were all lower, with ANZ down 14 cents to $24.95, Westpac dropped 38 cents to $29.90, Commonwealth Bank lost 16 cents to $77.96 and National Australia Bank fell 15 cents to $27.14.
KEY FACTS:
* At 1615 AEST on Friday, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was down 32.4 points, or 0.61 per cent, at 5,318.9 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 30.3 points, or 0.56 per cent, at 5,384.9 points.
The June share price index futures contract was down 21 points at 5,336 with 29,592 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 2.8 billion securities traded, worth $4.65 billion.
