Australian market at new low

Press, 10 March 1982, Page 22

Australian market at new low

Any hopes that Monday’s technical rally marked an end to the bearish trend of the Australian sharemarket were rapidly scotched yesterday as local sellers reacted to a slump on Wall Street and further sharp falls in gold bullion prices. At the close of trading the all-ordinaries index was at another new low point of 463.6, after a 5.9 point fall wiped out all of Monday’s gains. Brokers said that increased upward pressure on local interest rates is preventing any chance of real buying support. . Heavy end-of-session selling in New York brought the Dow Jones industrial average below the 800-barrier after a hefty 11.89 point fall to a 22-mbnth low of 795.47. The poor performance in the American centre came despite cuts in U.S. broker loan and prime rates and a larger than expected drop in U.S. money supply, M-l, of S3OOOM.

This bearish indicator combined with cheaper physical gold prices to knock the wind out of local traders and Sydney enjoyed yet another day of seller-dominated

activity. Banks were particularly hard hit, with the three big listed banks taking leading positions on the top ten volume and value tables;