MARKET TALK: S&P/ASX 200 Down 1.1% On Broad-Based Declines

25th Jun 2010 01:51

0051 GMT [Dow Jones] S&P/ASX 200 down 1.1% at 4429.9, hits 2-week low of 4422.6 after S&P 500 fell 1.7% on concern about financial regulation, European financial jitters and disappointing U.S. earnings reports. Financials, materials, energy and consumer discretionary sectors leading broad-based declines, with major banks down 1.3%-1.8%, BHP (BHP.AU) down 1.3%, Rio (RIO.AU) down 2.0%, Origin (ORG.AU) down 1.5% and News Corp. (NWS.AU) (owner of this news wire) down 3.6%. Gold miners among few stocks in positive territory, with Newcrest (NCM.AU) up 1.8%. "Renewed concern about Greek sovereign default risk, combined with U.S. financial regulation and recent weakness in U.S. economic data have equity markets up against the ropes," says IG Markets Strategist Ben Potter. "Trading volumes are pretty low because of the North American summer holidays but markets could keep tracking these kind of stories for another few weeks." Adds activity related to Russell Investments index rebalancing, due late Friday in New York, could have exaggerated Thursday's declines. "If there are a lot of stocks being reweighted in those indexes, it could have a massive impact." Also says the prospect of some reworking of the resource super profits tax, under new PM Julia Gillard, should be positive for miners. Expects short covering to support S&P/ASX 200 before the weekend G-20 meeting in Toronto. ([email protected]) Contact us in Singapore. 65 64154 140; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 24, 2010 20:51 ET (00:51 GMT)