Falling oil prices keep investors away
The Australian share market has opened lower with weakness in the energy sector offsetting gains by the big four banks.
Falls in oil prices overnight and general pessimism has kept investors away, IG chief market strategist Chris Weston said.
“We’re at a kind of cross-roads to speak, where people are questioning whether that move last week has further to go,” Weston said.
“I think at the moment we’re just seeing a lack of activity.
“There are no real buyers coming through the market.”
The big miners and energy stocks led the falls, as global oil prices fell sharply overnight amid concerns about excess supply.
Woodside Petroleum was 56.5 cents lower at $31.455 at 1107 AEDT while Origin had dropped 34 cents to $5.93 and Santos was down 29 cents at $5.64.
Elsewhere in the resources sector, BHP Billiton 39 cents weaker at $24.97 and Rio Tinto had lost $1.01 to $53.80.
Telstra has also had a weak start, falling 2.5 cents to $5.555 after it warned it would suffer an $80 million earnings hit from the competition watchdog’s ruling that it must cut the price it charges other telcos to access its copper wire network.
The big banks all pushed higher with the Commonwealth up three cents to $74.68, ANZ added 29 cents to $28.64, National Australia Bank climbed 11 cents to $31.51 and Westpac added 12 cents to $30.74
At 10.50am (AEDT) on Tuesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 20.6 points, or 0.39 per cent, at 5,212.30 points.
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The broader All Ordinaries index was down 21.5 points, or 0.41 per cent, at 5,245.9 points.
The December share price index futures contract was down 29 points at 5,195 points, with 9,716 contracts traded.
National turnover was 408.01 million securities worth $667.30 million.
– AAP
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