Australian sharemarket weaker as banks, miners lose ground

The Australian sharemarket breached a key resistance level in morning trade but ground lower as the day wore on, with banks and miners losing ground.

The Australian sharemarket failed to cling on to early gains on Monday, with banks and miners among those losing ground.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 breached the key 6200-point mark in morning trade but closed 0.2 per cent weaker at 6156. The All Ordinaries Index slid 0.3 per cent to 6357.

Iluka Resources spin-off Deterra Royalties was one of the worst performers, losing 6.5 per cent to $4.30 after listing at $4.87 and finishing at $4.60 on Friday.

Westpac was down 0.43 per cent at $18.70 after reporting its second half earnings would be slashed by $1.22 billion in notable items, including a previously announced additional $404 million provision for its record settlement with financial crimes regulator AUSTRAC.

ANZ backtracked 0.5 per cent to $19.68, Commonwealth Bank gave up 0.27 per cent to $69.71 and National Australia Bank fell 1.02 per cent to $19.33.

Coca-Cola Amatil was a rare bright spot, jumping more than 16 per cent after a takeover offer.

Rio Tinto eased 0.78 per cent to $94.66 and fellow diversified miner BHP was down 0.75 per cent at $35.73, while Australia’s biggest gold miner, Newcrest, dropped 0.62 per cent to $30.52.

Shipbuilder Austal slumped 6.9 per cent to $2.95 after announcing on Friday it would acquire Queensland-based BSE Maritime Solutions Group, a ship repair and support business for defence, commercial tourism and luxury vessel customers, for $27.5 million.

Buy-now-pay-later company Zip Co also fell on takeover news, confirming it had completed the acquisition of Sydney-based technology firm The Urge for an upfront $3 million worth of Zip shares, plus a deferred payment of $5.5 million if certain performance milestones were achieved within the next three-and-a-half years.

Zip shares lost 5.6 per cent to $6.36.

Coca-Cola Amatil shares soared by more than 16 per cent to $12.50 after Coca-Cola European Partners launched a $9.2 billion, $12.75-per-share conditional takeover offer, which the company has tentatively backed.

The Aussie dollar was fetching 71.14 US cents, 54.62 British pence and 60.11 Euro cents in afternoon trade.