PERTH: The Australian sharemarket has dipped on Wednesday amid rising tensions in the Middle East, with broad-based declines slightly offset by a buoyant energy sector.
At the 4.15pm (AEDT) official market close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 32.7 points, or 0.63 per cent, at 5193.7, while the broader All Ordinaries index had fallen 31.8 points, or 0.6 per cent, at 5245.2.
The energy sector improvements came on the back of the nearly 3 per cent rises in global oil prices overnight, which came in the wake of the downing of a Russian warplane by Turkish forces near the border of Turkey and Syria. Only one of the two Russian pilots survived the incident.
IG market analyst Angus Nicholson said while the incident was behind strong buying in the energy sector here and overseas, it was also a factor in the pullback in other parts of the market.
“The ASX has followed regional markets down as concerns over the Middle East saw a pullback in global equities,” he said.
Mr Nicholson said gains of 3.3 per cent price in copper and 6.9 per cent in nickel overnight had supported materials stocks, which were largely unchanged against the benchmark decline.
In economic news, ABS data found construction work decreased faster than expected in the September quarter but the result is not expected to alter expectations for Australia’s GDP print next week, while the Retail Council released figures predicting a 4.5 per cent lift in Christmas spending this year to $35 billion.
Last night, Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens doused investor hopes for an imminent rate cut during a speech in which he said the board would “chill out” pending more data on the economy.
