Commodity prices lead the way down

The Australian sharemarket took a dive yesterday as the big miners dipped after a plunge in commodity prices.
The ASX 200 finished down 54.4 points to 4817.1 while the All Ordinaries gave up 52.6 points to 4765.1.
On the Sydney Futures Exchange the March share price index was down 40 points to 4798 on a volume of 16,742 contracts.
Patersons Securities associate director Michael Brindal said the commodity price drop had taken the wind out of the market.
"Despite America being up on Friday night, cool breezes blew through base metals and oil prices on Friday night again … that really scared people," Mr Brindal said.
"When prices look a bit shaky that makes our big stocks shaky and that has certainly been the case today with Rio, BHP and Woodside leading the way down."
Retreating commodity prices overshadowed a strong finish in the US markets and sent the local bourse lower, with BHP Billiton losing 87c to $23.88 and Rio Tinto slumping $3.45 to $70.95.
Energy companies also shifted lower. Woodside fell $1.34 to $40.25, Oil Search 3c to $3.49 and Santos 35c to $12.05. Beach Petroleum was up ½c to $1.20.
The major banks were softer with Commonwealth Bank falling 34c to $43.26, ANZ 15c to $24.60, NAB 34c to $34.66 and Westpac 3c to $23.55.
Other financials were mostly weaker. Macquarie Bank dropped 64c to $63.85, St George Bank 22c to $29.61 and AMP 5c to $8.38.
Bendigo Bank was steady at $12.40 after reporting an 18 per cent jump in first-half net profit to $53.2 million.
Shares in takeover target Wattyl jumped 11c to $3.65 after the offer by Allco Equity Partners was trumped by a bid by Barloworld of South Africa.
AWB shares continued to fall, diving 39c, or more than 8 per cent, to $4.30 after the Grain Board of Iraq suspended business with the company until the conclusion of the Cole inquiry.
Telstra shares put on 2c to $4.04 but Singapore Telecommunications, owner of rival Optus, lost 1c to $2.16.
Media stocks were mixed. John Fairfax dropped 7c to $4 and PBL rose 11c to $16.01. News Corp rallied 21c to $22.51 and its non-voting shares gained 16c to $21.31. APN lost 6c to $4.54.
Seek climbed 9c to $3.74 after it booked a 61 per cent lift in first-half net profit to $14.47 million.
The spot price of gold dropped sharply, down $US12.625 an ounce on Friday's close to $US546.25 an ounce. Goldminers fell, with Newcrest down 87c to $24.51, Newmont 25c to $7.38, AngloGold 10c to $15.90 and Lihir Gold 8c to $2.13.