Mining companies' gains on yesterday's leadership change were reversed today as overall share market slid by 1.4 percent, with the All Ordinaries index dipping by 60 points to 4,444 as of 1438 AEST while the ASX 200 shed 62 points to 4,418.

The mining sector shares were down by 1.6 percent while stocks by the energy sector lost a bit more by up to 1.7 percent.

Giant resource companies were all hit by sell-offs as BHP Billiton gave up most of its gains yesterday by losing 2 percent while Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals shares plunged by 3.1 percent and four percent respectively.

One mining sector though seemingly survived the onslaught of reversals as gold prices rallied overnight and pushed up the share prices of Lihir by 2.1 percent and Newcrest by 1.4 percent.

On the energy sector, Caltex shares were sold-off heavily following its first-half operating profit forecast of between $140 to $160 million, which is way below from its previous guidance of $180 million.

Analysts though have been anticipating the Caltex decline, which saw its shares tumbling by 6.5 percent to $9.68 as of 1450 AEST, owing to the negative projections the company had released.

The healthcare sector was also affected by the apparent reverse contagion as CSL and Healthscope shares declined by three percent and 2.4 percent respectively.

A report released by the Financial Review has alleged that Healthscope's stocks slides were caused by the withdrawal of the private equity bidder, which had earlier expressed interest on Australia's second biggest hospital operator.

Almost automatically, the Australian dollar followed the lead of the declining equities markets and as of 1455 AEST, was merely valued at 86.15 US cents.