The Australian sharemarket is a little lower at lunch, with the All Ordinaries index (XAO) down 0.2 pct or 9.7 pts to 4647.2. Almost all sectors are trading in the red with some modest gains from the miners helping to minimise losses.

BHP Billiton (BHP) is up 0.38 pct or 17 cents to $44.39 while the smaller RIO Tinto (RIO) is down 0.3 pct or 25 cents to $83.07. Australia’s largest gold miner and the world’s fourth biggest, Newcrest Mining (NCM) is 1.07 pct or 40 cents higher to $37.86.

The major banks are all losing ground, with National Australia Bank (NAB) down 1.31 pct or 33 cents to $24.81, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is 1.14 pct or 59 cents lower to $51.19, Westpac (WBC) is off 1 pct or 21 cents to $21.76 and ANZ Banking Group (ANZ) is 0.96 pct or 21 cents weaker to $21.73.

The retailers were lower yesterday however are mostly stronger today after 2 hours of trade. Department store owner, Myer (MRY) has dropped significantly so far in 2011, however is up 2.78 pct or 7 cents to $2.59 today. David Jones (DJS) is down 0.26 pct or 1 cent to $3.89 and Australia’s largest specialty retailer; Harvey Norman (HVN) is down 0.41 pct or 1 cent to $2.40.

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.

The Asian sharemarkets are mostly lower, with China’s Shanghai Composite index down 0.8 pct or 22.55 pts to 2793.80, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is off 0.17 pct or 38.99 pts to 22708.96 and South Korea’s KOSPI index is 0.2 pct or 4.33 pts weaker to 2157.42. Shares in Taiwan are up 0.25 pct and Japan’s Nikkei is largely flat in its first session of trade.

It was a busy day of economic news yesterday with Australia’s central bank keeping rates on hold at 4.75 pct for the eighth straight month. There are no major releases expected today.

The best performing stock at lunch is Paradigm Metals (PDM), which is up 43.48 pct or 1 cent to 3.3 cents. PDM is a minerals development company mainly focused on copper, gold, uranium and tungsten. It was first listed in 2003 and has a market capitalisation of $4.9 million.

So far today, 712 million shares have been traded worth $1.73 billion. 443 shares are up, 394 are lower and 330 are currently unchanged.

The Australian dollar is stronger and buys US107.03 cents.

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