'Subdued' trading day on ASX

The Australian sharemarket closed lower today in subdued trading as investors waited for something to provide them with some solid impetus.

At the close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index had fallen 65 points, or 1.41 per cent, to 4531.1, while the broader All Ordinaries index had dropped 60.2 points, or 1.31 per cent, to 4536.1.

On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the September share price index futures contract was down 62 points to 4536, on a volume of 75,260 contracts, according to preliminary calculations.

"The market's been a little bit subdued today. Some profit-taking on financial stocks on Friday night (on United States markets) really did spark a bit of a sell-off of financials (in Australia) today," CMC Markets market analyst David Taylor said.

"There's a bit of profit-taking and consolidation. This particular week in September is known as a bit of a rough week for shares."

Mr Taylor said that in the absence of major company news and little in the way of economic data, investors were looking at commodity prices to gauge the risk appetite of the market.

Among the major banks, National Australia Bank reversed 94 cents to $28.10, ANZ Banking Group dumped 67 cents to $22.01, Westpac descended 43 cents to $24.09 and Commonwealth Bank fell 93 cents to $46.67.

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank shed 15 cents to $8.18 as it raised $121 million from retail investors as part of its oversubscribed capital raising announced on August 10.

In the resources sector, global miner BHP Billiton sagged 46 cents to $37.84 and Rio Tinto ejected $1.18 to $58.05.

South Australian miner Terramin Australia eased 3.5 cents to 71 cents as it said it would explore several mines dating back to the mid-19th century to boost its production of gold and base metals.

China Steel Australia firmed two cents to 17 cents after it said it had secured supply contracts with three Chinese steelmakers for merchant pig iron produced at its plant in China.

Oil and gas producer Woodside Petroleum strengthened 25 cents to $48.50 and Santos weakened 58 cents to $15.30.

In the gold sector, Newmont was off three cents at $5.37, Newcrest descended 24 cents to $33.92 and Lihir was steady at $3.02.

The price of gold in Sydney at 1626 AEST was US$998.57 per fine ounce, down 41 US cents on Friday's close of US$998.98.

Telco Telstra was down seven cents at $3.25 and Optus-owner Singapore Telecommunications scraped off one cent to $2.58.

Among media stocks, News Corp was 22 cents lighter at $15.69, and its non-voting stock backtracked 12 cents to $13.57.

Fairfax dipped 4.5 cents to $1.60 and Consolidated Media slipped seven cents to $2.95.

Retailer Woolworths retreated 20 cents to $28.36 and Wesfarmers, which owns Coles, put on 12 cents at $25.42.

- AAP