Australian markets

The Australian sharemarket closed lower as tensions in the Middle East continued to rattle markets and spike up oil prices. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index fell 23.2 points, or 0.48 per cent, to 4,803.2 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index was down 22.1 points, or 0.45 per cent at 4898.3. On the ASX 24, the March share price index futures contract was down 34 points at 4,791, with 40,673 contracts traded. In the energy sector, Santos Ltd was up 21 cents, or 1.49 per cent, at $14.34, while Woodside was up six cents at $42.63. Among the major materials stocks, BHP Billiton was down 32 cents at $46.05, while Rio Tinto lost $1.19, or 1.39 per cent to $84.12. The major banks ended the day in the red. National Australia Bank closed down two cents at $25.55, Westpac was down seven cents at $23.20, ANZ was down 16 cents at $23.86 and Commonwealth was 47 cents lower at $52.57.

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Retail shares also finished weaker with Myer losing four cents to $3.26, David Jones was down ten cents, or 2.16 per cent at $4.52, while Harvey Norman slumped two cents to $3.01. One of the best-performing stocks in the ASX 50 was pathology and radiology provider Sonic Healthcare, which rose 32 cents, or 2.92 per cent, to $11.27. In other news, John Holland, a wholly owned subsidiary of Australia's largest engineers Leighton Holdings won a tender to deliver Perth's $360 million city link rail project, including sinking the city's railway line. Leighton shares fell 45 cents, or 1.44 per cent, to $30.85. AXA Asia Pacific Holdings Ltd rose eight cents, or 1.26 per cent, to $6.41 after shareholders voted in favour of AMP Ltd's $14 billion takeover of the wealth fund manager. The most traded stock by volume was Empire Oil and Gas. Empire Oil and Gas shares traded 285.85 million shares worth $10.01 million. Empire Oil and Gas shares finished 0.2 cents lower, or 5.26 per cent, at 3.6 cents. National turnover was 3.80 billion shares worth $6.15 billion, with 496 stocks up, 716 down and 352 unchanged.

The Australian dollar sank in Asian trade Wednesday on weaker than expected fourth quarter gross domestic product data. Australian bonds, which rose slightly on the data, were also boosted by a broad slide in stocks globally as Middle East tensions drove oil prices higher. Setting off the trade in Australia, the country's statistics bureau said fourth quarter GDP increased 0.7%, slightly below the 0.8% forecast by economists. While the report was mostly strong, concerns about the future impact of the devastating floods that inundated the coal-rich state of Queensland in December and January hung over the report. Notably, Australia's Treasurer Wayne Swan warned the first quarter of 2011 would see the brakes slammed on growth as the full force of recent natural disasters are felt, with only technical trading keeping the currency from falling further. The Australian dollar changed hands at $1.0103, down from $1.0156 late Tuesday, although above its low for the day of US$1.0092. Against the Japanese yen, the unit traded at 82.745, from 83.445.

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