ASX CLOSE: Trading subdued on market today

Wednesday 30th December 2009

Across Asia, regional indices are mainly lower, dragged down on concerns that Japanese Airlines Corp and Korea's Asiana Airlines Inc have dire debt concerns that may require restructuring through bankruptcy measures. The Nikkei 225 is flat, the Hang Seng is weaker by 0.5% while the Shanghai Composite and the Kospi are forging ahead by 1.2% and 0.3% respectively.

In Australia, trading on the ASX 200 was very subdued with the index closing lower by 0.2% at 4833.3, having earlier traded as high as 4867. The fact that liquidity is paper thin at the moment, there are concerns over some regional airlines' viability and the local market had added more than 4% over the previous five sessions, there were plenty of reasons for investors to take some money off the table heading into the last session of the year.

Amongst the most widely held and popularly traded stocks, the heavyweight miners closed mixed with BHP off 0.5% with Rio Tinto firmer by 0.3% as the USD continued its overnight strength during the Asian session. The dollar's firmness saw gold prices continuing to drift away from that US$1100 level sending bellwether names Newcrest Mining and Lihir Gold lower by 0.9% and 0.6% respectively.

We also saw some mixed performances across our major banks with CBA and Westpac both finishing weaker by 0.2% and 0.5% while the ANZ and NAB finished to the upside by 0.2% and 0.1% respectively.

There's little else to say at this time of the year. Volumes were again light with most traders and investors having pulled stumps for the year. Tomorrow promises to see even shallower market depth in a shortened trading session.

Prices are in AUD unless otherwise stated.
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