Australian shares down

Australian share prices closed down 0.83 percent on Monday with investor sentiment shaken by the sell-off on Wall Street on Friday, dealers said. But they said despite the negative sentiment, most sectors were mixed. The key S&P/ASX 200 closed down 52.9 points at 6,329.7 while the broader All Ordinaries index shed 50.7 points to close at 6,358.6.
Turnover was 1.91 billion shares worth 5.58 billion dollars (4.73 billion US), with falls outnumbering rises 889 to 495 and 328 stocks closing unchanged. Bell Potter Securities private client advisor Stuart Smith said the market was experiencing a minor version of "the Dow Jones blues" because there were few other leads. But it had begun to improve towards the end of the session.
"We've had a good performance really today - there hasn't been a lot of volume but that's understandable," he said. Smith said the market was also helped by the release of an official commodities report which forecast booming mining exports and the easing of drought conditions.
The major miners were lower with BHP Billiton shares down 0.44 dollars at 34.94 dollars and rival Rio Tinto off 0.39 dollars to 98.51 dollars. Energy stocks were varied - Woodside Petroleum fell 0.51 to 46.19, Oil Search was unchanged at 4.19 and Santos shed 0.12 to 14.64.