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Market ends week on downer THE stockmarket closed slightly down bringing an end to the four-day rally which rescued the market from its multi-month lows. At the close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 71.2 points to 6088.5 while the all ordinaries was down 62.5 points to 6087.2. At 4.26pm on the Sydney Futures Exchange, the September share price index contract was 103 points lower at 6081, on a volume of 31,290 contracts. Bill Bishop, private client adviser at ABN Amro Morgans said the sharemarket had been trading sideways all day, but had a wonderful run since last week. "Today all is forgiven for the market. If it wants to have a breather today it's allowed to, I think," Mr Bishop said. "Also there is some rather high-powered shouting from the (United) States that we might go into recession because of sub-prime (mortgage issues), but we don't know. I would like to say it's not true but it's a possibility. " ... we simply don't have a handle on the amount of damage that the so-called sub-prime crisis is doing. "The sub-prime issue is a mystery and a worry but the markets have rallied really strongly in the face of the drama last week." Mr Bishop said the local profit-reporting season had proved the strength of Australian companies. "It's pretty good, it shows a lot of Australian companies are in good shape - they have surplus capital and that's a healthy sign." Wall Street managed to close flat even though the head of the largest US mortgage company Countrywide Financial Corp said the housing slump could trigger a recession. The comments squashed an earlier rally and drove down financial stocks, with investors fretting about the US economic outlook. The Dow Jones industrial average was down just 0.25 of a point to close at 13,235.88, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 1.57 points, or 0.11 per cent, to 1,462.50 and the Nasdaq Composite Index shed 11.10 points, or 0.43 per cent, to 2,541.70. Locally the big miners were weaker, with BHP Billiton dropping $1.10 to $36.60 and rival Rio Tinto was down $1.88 to $89.12. The big banks were mixed, with ANZ adding six cents to $29.45, National Australia Bank down 13 cents to $40.00, Commonwealth Bank down 20 cents to $54.81 and Westpac gaining one cent to $26.78. Retailers also were mixed, with Coles up three cents at $14.04, Woolworths dropping 14 cents to $27.69 and David Jones gaining 13 cents to $4.96. The media sector was mixed, with PBL rising 23 cents to $17.91, Fairfax down three cents to $4.69, News Corp dropping 50 cents to $26.70 and its non-voting shares shedding 58 cents to $24.86. Insurance Australia Group lost 42 cents to $5.30 after the company recorded a fall in net profit for 2007 to $552 million, after earnings were affected by the June storms. PaperlinX gained 20 cents to $3.40 after the company posted a rise in full year net profit to $80.1 million, helped by strategic initiatives and an improved market in Europe. Billabong International dipped 88 cents to $15.44 even though the surfwear company reported a 14.6 per cent net profit increase to $167.2 million. The energy sector was mixed. Woodside gained 51 cents to $42.11, Santos rose 25 cents to $12.36 and Oil Search fell three cents to $3.41. Oil refiner and marketer Caltex Australia lifted 79 cents to $23.76 after reporting an interim net profit of $255 million for its first half year. The spot gold price was trading at $US658 an ounce, down $US5.00 an ounce on yesterday's local close. The gold miners were weaker. Newcrest dipped 51 cents to $25.08, Newmont Mining was down 12 cents to $4.96 and Lihir lost four cents to $2.98. The most traded stock on the market was Newsat, with 178 million changing hands, worth $1.312 million. Newsat lost 0.2 cents to 0.6 cents. Preliminary market turnover reached 1.85 billion shares worth $5.94 billion, with 559 stocks up, 649 down and 341 unchanged. |