It’s been another dismal end to the trading week for the local share market, which has now officially entered into bear market territory. Following a weak lead from Wall Street, Aussie shares couldn’t get off the ground and continued to lose momentum in afternoon trade, closing the day 1.16 per cent lower. Once again we saw the big banks heavily sold off with losses across the board, but today it was Westpac that was the biggest victim closing almost 2.5 per cent lower.
Today, the S&P/ASX 200 index closed 56 points lower to finish at 4,765.
Over the week the index lost 211 points.
The value of trades was $5.5 billion on volume of 842 million shares at the close of trade. The top three stocks by value were Commonwealth Bank of Australia
(ASX:CBA), ANZ Banking Group
(ASX:ANZ) and National Australia Bank Limited
(ASX:NAB).
On the futures market the SPI is 49 points lower.
US Markets
Looking at Wall Street, US major indexes have dropped over the four trading days this week: The Dow Jones Industrial Average has lost 3.5 per cent. The S&P 500 Index has slid 3.5 per cent. The NASDAQ has lost 2.3 per cent. The 100 Index has lost 1.6 per cent.
Economic news
According to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the number of home loan approvals rose by 2.6 per cent in December on a seasonally-adjusted basis. The value of loans for investment housing increased by 0.6 per cent for the month.
Company news Origin Energy Limited
(ASX:ORG) has announced that it has entered into a sale agreement with AusNet Services for the sale of Mortlake Terminal Station for a cash consideration of $110 million. Mortlake Terminal Station connects Origin’s gas fired Mortlake Power Station to Victoria’s electricity market. The transaction stands to provide Origin with a pre-tax gain of approximately $25 million. Shares in Origin Energy closed 1.09 per cent lower at $3.64.
Rio Tinto Limited
(ASX:RIO) has reported a 51 per cent dive in profit to $4.54 billion.
Woodside Petroleum Limited
(ASX:WPL) says it has made a second gas discovery at its exploration block off the west coast of Myanmar.
Best and worst performers
The best performing sector was Telcos adding 0.5 per cent to close at 2,018. The worst performing sector was Financials excluding REITs, losing 1.8 per cent to close at 6,008 points.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Bluescope Steel, rising 14.16 per cent to close at $5.00. Shares in Independence Group and AWE also closed higher.
The worst performing stock was Henderson Group, dropping 7.83 per cent to close at $4.59. Shares in BT Investment and ALS also closed lower.
Commodities and the dollar
The price of gold is trading at $US1,234 an ounce, and is up $75.89 over the week.
Light crude is $0.83 lower at $US28.83 a barrel.
The Australian dollar is buying US$0.7105 and is 0.3 cent higher over the week.
