The Australian share market has closed lower on Monday, pulling back from the all-time record high close reached last week, reports Xinhua. At the close of trade, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was down 25.30 points or 0.37 percent at 6,903.70, while the broader All Ordinaries index fell 21.70 points or 0.31 percent at 7,020.20.
"This follows a weak lead from Wall Street and sluggish U.S. jobs growth in a monthly report issued on Friday," Commsec market analyst Steven Daghlian told investors in an afternoon report. "The price of oil also continued to head backwards while safe havens like gold received some support."
Australia's big banks weakened with the Commonwealth Bank down (0.02 percent), Westpac Bank down (0.24 percent), National Australia Bank unchanged (0.00 percent) and ANZ down (0.44 percent). Mining stocks saw mixed results with BHP down (0.93 percent), Rio Tinto down (0.34 percent), Fortescue Metals up (0.84 percent) and gold miner Newcrest up (0.03 percent).
The country's oil and gas producers dived with Woodside Petroleum down (1.20 percent), Santos down (0.56 percent) and Oil Search down (1.89 percent). Australia's largest supermarket chains slumped with Coles Group down (1.21 percent) and Woolworths down (1.03 percent).
While telecommunications giant Telstra lost ground (0.26 percent), the national carrier Qantas lifted (0.29 percent) and biomedical firm CSL plummeted (1.60 percent).