SYDNEY: The Australian sharemarket has continued to rattle around the 5000 point mark, with the bourse heading back towards the key level as soggy European and Wall Street leads pushed local stocks lower.
At the 10.15am (AEST) official market open, the S&P/ASX200 index dipped 34.8 points, or 0.68 per cent, to 5077.3, while the broader All Ordinaries index fell 33 points, or 0.68 per cent, to 5111.1.
Mixed eurozone manufacturing figures sparked a fresh bout of selling in European equities, sending the German DAX and the French CAC lower after better-than-expected Chinese manufacturing data had earlier sparked a strong rally across Asian sharemarkets.
The downbeat sentiment followed onto US markets, where higher-than-expected jobless claims led to a soft session on Wall Street.
“Given the current global market conditions, the strong gains seen in Asian trade in the past two days should ring warning signs for today’s session,” IG analyst Angus Nicholson said.
The local market has logged a wild week of trade, jumping 1.4 per cent on Monday before crashing 3.8 per cent on Tuesday. It then regained the lost ground, rising 3.9 per cent over Wednesday and Thursday.
“There are a few trends that the past 24 hours of trade re-emphasise, and some of these trades are starting to look overcrowded and potentially susceptible to a major upset,” Mr Nicholson said.
