KEY POINTS:
PERTH - The Australian stock market closed in negative territory after the bourse suffered its third 100-point fall this calendar year on the back of weak commodity prices and a poor lead from Wall Street.
At the close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 123.1 points at 5741.9
while the all ordinaries slipped 116.7 points lower to 5727.3.
At 1620 AEDT on the Sydney Futures Exchange, the March share price index contract was 119 points lower at 5743, on a volume of 95,325 contracts.
CMC Markets analyst David Land said a poor lead from the US and weaker commodity prices dragged the market down, but the fall didn't come as a surprise.
"Looking at today's session, the vast majority of the sell-off happened in the opening minutes of trade and the market didn't really move very far from those levels," he said.
"We saw very broad-based selling across the course of the session, all sectors of the market were comfortably in negative territory over the course of the day.
"But there had been quite a bit of anticipation of some follow-on volatility from the fall a fortnight ago."
US stocks plummeted overnight as weak retail sales data prompted concerns about economic growth.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 242.66 points to 12,075.96 and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gave up 28.65 points to 1,377.95.
The Nasdaq shed 51.72 points to 2,350.57.
Locally, the big miners were weaker, with BHP Billiton dropping 88 cents to A$26.88, and rival Rio Tinto slipping A$1.97 to A$72.53.
The big banks were also weaker, with the Commonwealth Bank giving up 94 cents to A$48.70, the National Australia Bank tumbling 56 cents to A$39.40, ANZ dropping 50 cents to A$28.30 and Westpac dipping 53 cents to A$25.24.
The Macquarie Bank softened A$2.75 to A$78.00, with the bank saying it will contribute US$250 million (A$320.33 million) to the acquisition of a US real estate investment trust by a consortium that it is leading.
Tabcorp Holdings dropped 18 cents to A$16.97, with chief executive Matthew Slatter leaving the company today after more than four years in the top job.
Biotechnology company Peptech reversed the trend and added 14.5 cents to A$1.925 after appointing Citigroup to advise it on several approaches made by private equity firms and other biotechnology companies.
While biotech company Prima BioMed gained 0.8 cents to 5.4 cents after it said a trial of its experimental ovarian cancer treatment, CVac, has "exceeded expectations", paving the way for the next stage of trials.
The retailers were mixed, with Coles retreating 13 cents to A$15.52, Woolworths shedding 40 cents to A$27.50, David Jones slipping 11 cents to A$4.42 and Harvey Norman steady at A$4.65.
The media sector was weaker, with the James Packer-led PBL dropping 29 cents to A$18.78, Fairfax giving up 12 cents to A$4.60, News Corp retreating eight cents to A$30.35 and its non-voting shares shifting 18 cents lower to A$28.71.
While biotech company Prima BioMed gained 0.8 cents to 5.4 cents after it said a trial of its experimental ovarian cancer treatment, CVac, has "exceeded expectations", paving the way for the next stage of trials. The retailers were mixed, with Coles retreating 13 cents to A$15.52, Woolworths shedding 40 cents to A$27.50, David Jones slipping 11 cents to A$4.42 and Harvey Norm a n steady at A$4.65.
The media sector was weaker, with the James Packer-led PBL dropping 29 cents to A$18.78, Fairfax giving up 12 cents to A$4.60, News Corp retreating eight cents to A$30.35 and its non-voting shares shifting 18 cents lower to A$28.71.
The energy sector was weaker on the back of a fall in the oil price, with Woodside losing 57 cents to A$35.46, Santos retreating 30 cents to A$9.40 and Oil Search sliding four cents down to A$3.45.
The spot gold price at 1633 AEDT was trading at USA$641.50 an ounce, down USA$9.30 on yesterday's local close.
The gold miners were weaker, with Newcrest falling 36 cents to A$20.85, Newmont shedding 11 cents to A$5.29 and Lihir Gold dipping 10 cents to A$3.02.
Telecommunications services provider Broad Investments was the most traded stock on the market today, with 176.4 million shares changing hands collectively worth A$1.66 million.
Broad shares dropped 0.1 cent to one cent.
Preliminary market turnover reached 1.62 billion worth a total value of A$5.73 billion with 272 stocks moving up, 943 moving down and 314 unchanged.
- AAP
