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MELBOURNE - The Australian stock market closed lower today as the resources sector weakened, local data showed a fall in new home building approvals, and after United States markets fell overnight.
At the 1615 AEDT close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 85.4 points, or 2.26 per cent,
at 3,694.3, and the broader All Ordinaries index had lost 84.6 points, or 2.27 per cent, to 3,643.6.
On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the March share price index futures contract was 107 points lower at 3,668 on a volume of 20,410 contracts, according to preliminary calculations.
CMC Markets market analyst David Taylor said stocks in most sectors were down today.
"Unfortunately, we had a really bad opening act from the US, which got our market off to a bad start," he said.
"And the resources and oil stocks have really weighed heavily upon the market."
Mr Taylor said investors also were taking profits after some recent positive sessions.
Trading volumes were fairly low given that many investors were still on holidays.
On Wall Street overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index dropped 245.4 points to 8,769.7 as bleak corporate profit outlooks and escalating unemployment showed that the US economy was still in rough shape.
Locally, Australian building approvals fell 12.8 per cent, seasonally adjusted, to 9,581 in November, from an upwardly revised 10,983 in October, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said.
The market forecast was for building approvals to shrink by 1.5 per cent in November.
On the local bourse today, in the resources sector, global miner BHP Billiton fell $1.85, or 5.67 per cent, to $30.75, while Rio Tinto lost $2.93, or 6.24 per cent, to $44.00.
The price of oil in New York fell US$5.95 to US$42.63 per barrel.
Oil and gas producer Woodside Petroleum lost $2.34, or 6.04 per cent, to $36.43; Santos sank 58 cents, or 3.81 per cent, to $14.63; and Oil Search reversed eight cents, or 1.7 per cent, to $4.63.
Among the major banks, National Australia Bank dipped three cents to $20.86, the Commonwealth Bank fell 39 cents to $28.56, ANZ shed 13 cents to $15.22, and Westpac dumped 30 cents to $16.57.
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank dropped 33 cents, or 3.03 per cent, to $10.55 as it bought Macquarie Group's margin lending portfolio for $52 million.
Macquarie was $1.25 lower, or by 3.7 per cent, at $32.50, after also warning of extremely challenging market economic conditions in the December quarter.
Telstra retreated seven cents to $3.69 as confirming its financial guidance despite the telco's exclusion from the tender process for the National Broadband Network. The telco's chief said the exclusion could cost it between $1 billion and $2 billion over time.
Optus-owner Singapore Telecommunications fell one cent to $2.41.
Retailer Woolworths was up 40 cents at $26.02. Wesfarmers, which owns Coles, surrendered 79 cents, or 4.06 per cent, to $18.68.
Among media stocks, News Corp was down 75 cents, or 5.22 per cent, to $13.61, and its non-voting scrip weakened 86 cents, or 6.39 per cent, to $12.60.
Consolidated Media sagged 3.5 cents to $1.995, and Fairfax eased two cents to $1.70.
In the gold sector, Newmont was down 51 cents, or 9.32 per cent, to $4.96, Newcrest fell $1.34, or 4.51 per cent, to $28.35, and Lihir lost 15 cents, or 5.75 per cent, to $2.46.
The price of gold in Sydney at 1632 AEDT was US$844.10 per fine ounce, down US$15.65 on yesterday's close of US$859.75.
Among other stocks, investment firm Babcock & Brown was in a trading halt as the company awaited a response from its lenders to its capital restructure proposal. Babcock last traded at 32.5 cents.
The top-traded stock by volume was minerals explorer and producer Admiralty Resources, with 205.3 million shares worth $7.25 million changing hands. Admiralty lifted 0.2 cent, or 5.88 per cent, to 3.6 cents.
Preliminary national turnover was 1.2 billion shares worth $2.7 billion, with 569 stocks down, 308 up and 235 unchanged.
- AAP