PERTH: The Australian sharemarket was trading in the red at noon, after fluctuating throughout the morning, following heavy losses in offshore trade as Greece moved closer to a debt default.
Earlier, the local benchmark has dropped to its lowest point this year, before recovering to around the unchanged level towards noon.
But fresh downward momentum in Chinese sharemarkets pulled the local bourse into the red just before midday.
At 12.05pm (AEST), the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 7.2 points, or 0.13 per cent, to 5,415.3, while the broader All Ordinaries index declined 7.7 points, or 0.14 per cent, to 5,408.9.
The market action follows a wave of selling in foreign equities markets, as Greece looks all-but-certain to default on today’s IMF loan repayment.
Overnight, Germany’s DAX 30 slumped 3.6 per cent, Paris’ CAC 40 dropped 3.7 per cent, while London’s FTSE 100 weakened 2 per cent as banks led declines.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dove 2 per cent and the S&P 500 index slid 2.1 per cent.
Tokyo’s Nikkei lifted at the open this morning, injecting some calm into the Australian market, but the sentiment shortly ended, with Chinese sharemarkets continuing their downward trajectory.
The Shanghai Composite, Shenzen, and Hang Seng index dropped at the start of trade, just before noon (AEST).
On the local market, the mining stocks were weighing on the market, after the price of iron ore continued to fall in offshore trade.
