Australian Index in Negative Territory

Marcus Jacob
25 May, 2012
New York City

Australian stocks closed lower and the ASX 200 index erased gains of the year and closed down 0.7% for the year. The index has steadily lost all its gains in the last two months after commodities prices eased on the rising prospects of a global slowdown.

[R]8:00 PM Sydney – Australian stocks closed lower and the ASX 200 index erased gains of the year and closed down 0.7% for the year. The index has steadily lost all its gains in the last two months after commodities prices eased on the rising prospects of a global slowdown.[/R]

Australian stocks erased early gains in the day after global slowdown worries and rising prospects of the weaker commodities imports from China worried investors.

The ASX 200 indexes declined 26.60 to 4,029.20 and All Ordinaries index decreased 25.03 to 4,081.18. The ASX index has dropped 8.6% in the month so far and for the year the index is down 0.7% for the year.

The Australian dollar traded near the low of the year at 97.54 U.S. cents.

Stock Movers

David Jones Limited increased 7 cents to $2.27 on market speculation that a private equity group is likely to bid for the retailer, Harvey Norman Holdings closed up 2 cent to $1.95 and Woolworths slumped 21 cents to $26.69.

Kathmandu unchanged to $1.20. Billabong International Limited edged down 1 cent to $2.05.

BHP Billiton declined 38 cents to $31.61 and Rio Tinto shrank 43 cents to $55.93.

Lynas Corporation Limited edged up 1.5 cents to 89.5 cents and Iluka Resources gained 24 cents to $12.80. Newcrest Mining decreased 15 cents to $24.75 and Kingsgate rose 3 cents to $4.99.

Oil Search Limited slipped 10 cents to $6.70 and Santos Limited slumped 12 cents to $11.80. Orica shrank 32 cents to $25.03.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia slides 59 cents to $48.72 and Bank of Queensland fell 3 cents to $6.25. ANZ decreased 9 cents to $20.38. National Australia Bank slipped 18 cents to $23.30 and Westpac Banking Corporation closed down at 27 cents to $20.12.

Brambles increased 0.8% to $6.78 and Sims Metals Management dropped 6.1% to $11.50 after the company estimated full year earnings to be at least 15% lower than a year ago.

Stockland closed up at 4 cents to $3.19, Leighton shrank 41 cents to $17.45 and Toll Holdings advanced 11 cents to $4.50.

Qantas closed down 1 cent to $1.46 and Virgin Australia unchanged to 41.5 cents and Flight Centre unchanged to $18.45.

QR National fell 4 cents to $3.29.