Australian share market sinks lower

THE Australian share market is on the back foot for a sixth straight day as local investors wait anxiously for the start of trade in China.

Specialist John O'Hara works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016. U.S. stocks are opening sharply lower as worries intensify about China's economy and dropping oil prices. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

THE Australian share market is on the back foot for a sixth straight day as local investors wait anxiously for the start of trade in China.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index slipped below 5,000 at the open on Friday after sharp overnight falls on Wall Street and in Europe.

However the Australian market managed to pare back some of it early losses, and was down 0.62 per cent at 4,979 at 1200 AEDT.

Investors waited to see how markets in mainland China would react to the government’s removal of the so-called circuit-breaker mechanism that on Thursday kicked in to suspend trade for a second day this week after some sharp share price falls.

The big four banks were all in negative territory, with Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and ANZ all down about one per cent.

Westpac was down a relatively modest 0.64 per cent.

KEY FACTS:

* At 12pm AEDT on Friday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 31.3 points, or 0.62 per cent, at 4,979 points.

* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 33.4 points, or 0.66 per cent, at 5,035.4 points.

* The March share price index futures contract was down 31 points at 4,927 points, with 23,433 contracts traded.

* National turnover was 858 million securities traded worth $1.874 billion.