Gold miners lead stocks into the red

The local market has extended losses at noon, as miners and industrials lagged.

Weakness in the mining and industrial sectors has weighed on the local sharemarket, pulling it into the red. Materials, industrials and real estate stocks among the worst perforrmers in the wake of a negative lead from the US and Europe.

At 12pm (AEDT) the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 41.7 points, or 0.76 per cent, at 5,442.3 points. The broader All Ordinaries index was down 42.2 points, or 0.76 per cent, at 5,527.7 points.

Gold miners in particularb were falling after the price of the precious metal slumped more than 3 per cent overnight, reaching its lowest price since Britain’s shock vote to leave the European Union.

Newcrest had dropped 6.2 per cent, Evolution Mining had fallen 8.3 per cent and OceanaGold had plummeted 15 per cent.

With copper and iron ore prices also falling, Rio Tinto shares had shed 1.8 per cent while BHP Billiton was down 0.9 per cent.

The four major banks were better off, despite the scrutiny of a public hearing into the sector by a House of Representatives’ Standing Committee on Economics. Westpac was the best performer, up 0.3 per cent, while the remainder were modestly weaker.

National turnover was 1.3 billion securities traded, worth $1.6 billion.

AAP