Aussie shares are expected to take a hit when the market opens this morning after heavy falls on Wall Street and European markets, raising fresh doubts on the health of the economy. Oil and base metal prices also fell overnight, which is likely to affect local resources stocks.

Yesterday the Australian share market finished relatively flat with the S&P/ASX 200 Index up 3 points to 3,877 and on the futures market the SPI200’s is down 82 points.

Checking currencies at 8:30am the Aussie dollar is currently buying 79.2 US cents. On the cross rates the dollar is trading at 76.01 Yen, 56.77 Euro cents and 48.45 British pence.

In economic news due out today, the AIG/CBA Performance of Services Index for June.

In company news, Rio Tinto Limited (ASX:RIO) shares closed higher yesterday, up 0.29% to $51.75. The dual-listed miner is likely to be in focus today after announcing that it has successfully completed the Australian portion of its $15.2 billion rights issue, with shareholder acceptances at 94.76%. Rio Tinto’s 2008 profits was down by about half of what the result was in 2007.

Telstra Corportation Limited (ASX:TLS) shares finished stronger yesterday, up 0.6% to $3.37. The Federal Government is reportedly calling for further changes to the telephone company’s board after the recent departure of its chairman and chief executive. The Australian Financial Review has identified the potential candidates as being Patricia Hewitt, the former UK health secretary and a director of BT Group, Theresa Gattung, a previous head of Telecom New Zealand and Gerry Moriarty, a former Telstra executive. The newspaper reports that the government’s Future Fund wants Telstra to change the board to help the company through a potential business separation and to negotiate a deal on the national broadband network. Telstra’s 2008 net profit was just under $3.7 billion.

Turning to the ex-dividend scoreboard and going today are the Australian Leaders Fund with a 2 cent fully franked dividend and Programmed Maintenance Services with a 5 cent fully franked dividend.

To international markets: as mentioned US Markets closed lower overnight with the Dow Jones industrial average down 223 points, the S&P500 Index lost 27 points and the NASDAQ closed 49 points weaker.

European markets closed weaker: London’s FTSE fell 106, Paris lost 101 and Frankfurt was down 187 points.

Asian markets were mixed: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 201. Tokyo’s Nikkei shed 64 and China’s SSE Composite rose 52 points.

Looking at Metals: Gold is down US$10.30 to US$931 an ounce for the August contract on Comex. For the September contract Silver is down 35 cents to US$13.41 and copper lost 3 cents to US$2.31.

And finally oil fell US$2.58 to US$66.73 a barrel for August light crude in New York.