The Australian sharemarket is currently trading slightly lower with the All Ordinaries index (XAO) down 0.20pct or 8.5pts to 4468.8 at lunch. The market was weaker earlier on this morning however received a boost after what is expected to be the world's largest IPO listed on the Shanghai exchange. The issue price for Agbank was $2.68 and surprisingly the stock is only up around 1pct in early trade. (expectations were for an approximate 5pct gain in early trade).

Agbank in China is one of the big 4 banks in China and has almost 24,000 branches. China's GDP came in at 11.1pct for the first half, and inflation figures came in at 2.9pct which is less than forecast and has seen the markets rebound. More on this in the closing report this afternoon.

The miners are trading slightly lower with both BHP Billiton (BHP) and RIO Tinto (RIO) off by a little over 0.5pct. The oil and gas producers are also mostly lower with the S&P/ASX 200 Energy index off by 0.32pct or 49.9pts to 14749.1.

The price of gold remained steady overnight however our two largest gold producers are weaker. Australia's largest gold producer, Newcrest Mining (NCM) is off by 0.57pct or 20cents to $35.07 whilst the smaller Lihir Gold (LGL) is 1.15pct or 5cents weaker at $4.31.

The retailers are mixed at lunch with Myer (MYR) off slightly and David Jones (DJS) up 1.31pct or 6cents to $4.65.

On the economic front locally, the number of cars sold in June fell a less than expected 1.2pct.

The Australian dollar (AUD) gained after the Chinese data was released and now buys US88.32c.

Provided by www.comsec.com.au