The Australian share market has closed lower, shedding some of last week’s Donald Trump-led rally as investors take profits and mull over the US president-elect’s policies.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index declined 0.47 per cent, driven by falls from the resource stocks and two major banks, ANZ and Westpac, trading ex-dividend.
CMC Markets chief market analyst Ric Spooner said markets have pulled back from gains made last week on a wave of optimism about US-president elect Donald Trump’s infrastructure spending and economic stimulus agenda.
“Markets have collectively realised stocks have rallied far enough on the Trump themes – the benefits of fiscal stimulus in the US – and are treading more cautiously,” he said.
“We also saw weakness overnight in oil and gold, and while there was a strong rally in iron ore on Friday, copper has reversed from its big upward spike, again this is linked to Trump.”
Copper prices rose sharply last week on the prospect of demand lifting as the US spent more money on infrastructure, Mr Spooner said.
But the copper price has since fallen as markets tread more cautiously and wait to hear more about the makeup of his administration, he said.
At the close on Friday, Westpac was down $1.01, or 3.17 per cent, at $30.90 and ANZ declined 41 cents, or 1.45 per cent, at $27.89.
The other big two closed higher with National Australia Bank up 30 cents, or 1.08 per cent, at $28.10, and Commonwealth Bank lifted 40 cents, 0.53 per cent, to $76.18.
In the resources sector, global miner BHP Billiton fell 10 cents, or 0.4 per cent, to $24.84 and Rio Tinto dropped 11 cents, 0.2 per cent, to $59.44.
Fortescue Metals slipped three cents, or 0.5 per cent, to $6.25, as the miner announced a $US473 million loan deal to fund construction of its large ore carriers.
As for the major energy players, Woodside Petroleum fell eight cents or 0.3 per cent to $28.91, while Santos edged one cent or 0.3 higher at $3.82.
Harvey Norman was down 16 cents, or 3.4 per cent, at $4.54 as chairman Gerry Harvey hit back at shareholder concerns about a lack of transparency in company accounts at the retailer’s annual general meeting.
Among the better performers was agribusiness Elders, gaining 16 cents, or 4.2 per cent, to $3.95 after the company lifted full-year net profit by 35 per cent to $51.6 million.
KEY FACTS:
* At 1615 AEDT on Monday, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was down 25 points, or 0.47 per cent, at 5,345.7.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 26.3 points, or 0.48 per cent, at 5,420.3 points.
* The December share price index futures contract was down nine points at 5,348, with 38,072 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 3.5 billion securities traded, worth $6.4 billion.
