Sydney - Friday - April 18: (RWE Aust Business News) - The Australian sharemarket lost ground this morning as investors took profits after three days of strong gains. Wall Street's one-point rise to 12,620 provided little incentive to extend the market's 177-point advance over the past three days. At midday the ASX 200 index had lost 84 points to 5435 and the All Ordinaries index was down 78.8 points at 5508.5. In futures the June SPI200 contract fell 76 points to 5471. Trading was moderate with turnover of $1.6 billion after two hours, comprising 411 rises, 450 falls and 327 steadies. Brambles jumped to the top of the turnover by value list with trading worth $191 million, and plunged $1.35 to $8.68 after announcing that Wal-Mart in the US has indicated it may contract directly with third-party providers for pallet services, or even provide services itself. Miners dragged the market lower with BHP Billiton off $1.03 at $42.36, Rio Tinto dropped $5.13 to $140.87 and Zinifex slid 24c to $10.25. Banks were generally quiet with ANZ the worst, falling 32c to $20.40. Commonwealth lost 39c to $42.07, National shed 15c to $28.18 and Westpac was 21c behind at $22.31. Macquarie Group declined 93c to $58.08, AXA rose 5c to $5.68 as did Lend Lease to $12.67, Westfield Group fell 30c to $17.70, Sims Group ended a three-day winning streak which netted $3.32 and lost 77c to $35.01, Amcor put on 11c to $6.78, Telstra eased 1c to $4.51, Consolidated Media rose 4c to $3.67, Fairfax Media added 3c to $3.47, Aristocrat Leisure plunged 61c to $8.54, Leighton dropped $1.07 to $42.93, Woolworths slid 79c to $27.71 and CSL rose 29c to $38.12. In the energy sector Woodside Petroleum retreated $1.67 to $57.62 and Caltex lost 29c to $13.41 although Santos rose 11c to $15.76. Among the goldminers Newcrest dropped $1.41 to $33.03, Lihir slid 8c to $3.33 and Newmont shed 5c to $5.01. In New Zealand the NZX 50 index fell 25.8 to 3543.2 while Tokyo's Nikkei had dipped six points to 13,392. Gold is worth $US942.10 an ounce and the Australian dollar is fetching US93.73c.
