Australian stock market report - closing

The financial sector fell 1.5pct on the Goldman Sachs news, following similar selling in financial stocks offshore on Friday night. Shares in Westpac (WBC) eased by 1.5pct to $27.76 while the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) dropped 1.2pct to $59.10 and the NAB (NAB) fell 1pct to $28.08. Shares in the ANZ (ANZ) fell 2.4pct to $25.08. Macquarie Group (MQG) dropped by 2.6pct to $50.25.

The materials sector lost 1.9pct in line with weakness on the London metals exchange. Shares in BHP Billiton (BHP) dropped by 1.6pct to $42.84 while Rio Tinto (RIO) was off 2.2pct to $77.96 and iron ore player Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) fell 4.9pct to $5.08. Takeover target Macarthur Coal (MCC) closed steady at $16.54. Gold stocks fell; with Newcrest Mining (NCM) down 1.8pct to $34 and Lihir Gold (LGL) off 0.5pct to $3.96. 

The energy sector eased by 1.3pct as the price of crude oil fell to below US$82 a barrel in Asian trade. At 4pm AEST the Nymex contract was down 1.8pct to US$81.75 a barrel. Shares in Woodside Petroleum (WPL) eased by 1.6pct to $45.97 while Santos (STO) was off 2.3pct to $14.09 and Oilsearch (OSH) eased by 1pct to $5.77. Caltex (CTX) fell 3.7pct to $12.06.

Qantas (QAN) shares fell 2pct to $2.92 as the airline announced the closure of European airspace due to the Iceland volcanic ash is costing $1.5 million per day. QAN also announced it is considering rerouting some of its flights to different European airports which have not been closed, while it will put on extra flights once the ban is lifted. Shares in Virgin Blue Australia (VBA) fell 4.6pct to $0.625 while Flight Centre (FLT) dropped 2.8pct to $20.80. 

Defensive stocks were generally lower, although managed to outperform the other majors. Telstra (TLS) closed down slightly at $3.12, Newscorp (NWS) was up 1.4pct to $19.58 and Cochlear (COH) was up 0.1pct to $75.92.

The Australian dollar fell below US92c for the first time since April 6 today and at 4pm AEST was worth US91.69c, £0.6029 and €68.24c.

On the market overall, a total of 2.43 billion shares were traded, worth $4.73 billion. 320 were up, 814 were down and 334 were unchanged.

At 4.30pm AEST on the Sydney Futures Exchange, the Share Price Index (SPI) futures contract was at 4914, down 84pts.

Ahead tonight, the leading index is released in the US.