By Ashley Jessen, director of LearnCFDs.com and author of CFDs Made Simple

Weak leads from overseas markets provided a gloomy start to the day and, despite a minor blip to the upside on open, our market gathered momentum in only one direction and that was down. Unceremoniously we had the biggest one day percentage drop in a month, pushing our S&P/ASX 200 lower by 80.2 points or a disappointing 1.6% to close at 4924.4 after yesterday's handy close above the 5000 mark.

NAB published their business survey which pointed to possible deterioration in business investment growth over the next six to twelve months, which sits well with current global sentiment but their report also highlight a slight increase in sentiment for January.

Basic Materials and Oil & Gas were in absolute free fall today, falling 4.66% and 4.00% respectively with many getting caught by yesterday's positive upswing. Today saw every sector in the red with most down over 1-2% but Consumer Services managed a minor 0.13% fall and the resilient Finance sector posted a 0.56% fall.

Looking over the charts

Resistance at and just above the 5000 mark proved too much of a mountain to climb with traders punishing stocks with a big sell off after 2pm today, following yesterday's disastrous US and European trading sessions. Confirmation of the first lower high does not bode well for the bulls with the likely movement straight down to support around 4900.

S&P/ASX 200 Gainers and Losers

Sundance Resources ((SDL)) was well and truly the stand out performer, rising 6.38% but investors will unlikely get excited, having sat through a 73% decline since January this year. Carsales.com ((CRZ)) also flourished, rising a better than average 4.90% but this was due to a reasonably strong upside breakout into new blue sky territory, breaking resistance at $9.50.

Buru Energy ((BRU)) had the wind absolutely knocked out of its sails today, falling a disappointing 15.71% as traders drove the price down from above $2.10 to below $1.80. Boart Longyear ((BLY)) continued its poor form this week, falling another 14.23%, bringing total losses for the last 6 trading sessions to 38% with today's negative price action indicating more pain ahead.

(For a more comprehensive summary of last night's market action see FNArena's Overnight Report.)

Disclaimer: There is a high degree of risk involved in trading various financial instruments. It is possible to lose significant amounts of money when trading the markets. As your trading decisions are beyond my control, I accept no responsibility for your trading results. Please seek professional financial advice to determine if trading is for you.

While Ashley Jessen attempts to ensure that the information herein is accurate at the date the information was produced, however, Ashley Jessen does not guarantee the accuracy, timeliness, completeness, performance or fitness for a particular purpose of any of the information provided herein and under no circumstances are they to be considered an offer, solicitation to invest or be construed as giving investment advice.

Technical limitations

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