The Australian sharemarket is pulling back for the second time this week, with the All Ordinaries index (XAO) down 0.9 pct or 40.9 pts to 4682.

The major banks are the biggest drag on trade, with National Australia Bank (NAB) down 2.14 pct or 57 cents to $26.10, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) down 1.71 pct or 88 cents to $50.54, Westpac (WBC) down 1.68 pct or 37 cents to $21.70 and ANZ banking Group (ANZ) is 1.14 pct or 25 cents lower to $21.77.

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Commodity prices fell sharply in U.K and U.S trade overnight, partly off the back of a stronger U.S dollar. This is putting downward pressure on our largest miners, with BHP Billiton (BHP) down 0.55 pct or 24 cents to $43.05 and RIO Tinto (RIO) losing 0.46 pct or 36 cents to $78.63.

The retailers are not being spared from the selloff, with department store owner, David Jones (DJS) down 2.31 pct or 10 cents to $4.23 and its competitor Myer (MYR) is 1.77 pct or 5 cents off to $2.78.

Australia’s largest listed insurers are lower, but are performing better than most with the country’s largest listed insurer QBE Insurance (QBE) down 0.96 pct or 17 cents to $17.52, AMP Limited (AMP) down 1.16 pct or 6 cents to $5.11, Insurance Australia Group (IAG) down 1.15 pct or 4 cents to $3.43 and Suncorp Group (SUN) is falling by 1.2 pct or 10 cents to $8.23.

Following the end of daylight savings in April this year, major Asian markets will be trading between the hours mentioned below until mid October.

The Hong Kong sharemarket trades in two sessions each day and will now be opening for trade between 11.30am (AEST) and 2pm (AEST) and then between 3.30pm (AEST) and 6pm (AEST) in its second session.

Out of Japan, the first session will be between 10am (AEST) and 12pm (AEST), while the second session is between 1.30pm (AEST) and 4pm (AEST).

The Singapore exchange will be open for trade between 11am (AEST) and 2.30pm (AEST) for the first session and then between 4pm (AEST) and 7pm (AEST) in its second session.

Sharemarkets in the Asian region are mostly lower, with China’s Shanghai Composite index the worst performer in early trade, down 0.73 pct or 20.33 pts to 2754.23 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is 0.17 pct or 38.9 pts lower to 22672.12. Shares out of South Korea are unchanged and stocks are a little lower in Japan.

No major economic data is scheduled for release today in Australia or the Asian region.

The best performing stock at lunch is Corazon Ltd (CZN) which is up 84.62 pct or 5.5 cents to 12 cents. CZN is a minerals explorer in both Canada and Australia.

So far today, 1.07 billion shares have been traded worth $2.51 billion. 278 shares are up, 656 are lower and 365 are currently unchanged.

The Australian dollar currently buys US105.1 cents.

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