Market pauses as sellers move in

The sharemarket ran out of puff at the end of the day as an early strong lead built up by the major miners fell to profit-taking.
The ASX 200 was down 18 points at 5162.5 after reaching a high of 5217.5. The All Ordinaries fell 16.8 to 5116.3, pulling back from a new high of 5166 reached in the morning.
Shaw Stockbroking's head dealer, Jamie Spiteri, said the recent strong gains had inspired profit taking. "At these higher levels the market is just starting to feel a bit of profit taking, which is nothing too surprising considering the significance of some of the rises of late."
Strong commodity prices continued to support resources. BHP Billiton closed up 35c at $29.25 and Rio Tinto was up 2c at $79.71.
A slight increase in the oil price overnight didn't help the energy stocks with Woodside down 50c to $44.85 and Santos off 14c to $11.50. Oil Search, though, rose 13c to $4.08.
Uranex soared 42c or 66 per cent to $1.06. The company said it had signed a so-called letter of intent on potential co-operation with China National Nuclear Corp, China's largest nuclear power-plant builder.
Origin Energy fell 8c to $23.80 after the company said its $500 million BassGas project may make no "significant" profit contribution this fiscal year because of further delays.
National Australia Bank fell 28c to $37.08, ANZ shed 37c to $26.39, the Commonwealth eased 30c to $44.80 while Westpac dipped 1c to $24.15.
Westpac is chasing real estate assets, announcing it had acquired $100 million worth of residential property from the Defence Housing Authority.
Elsewhere, St George Bank was 60c weaker at $30.15 while Macquarie Bank surged $1.10 to $66.05.
PaperlinX fell 8c to $3.67. Credit Suisse has upgraded its 12-month target price for PaperlinX but its analyst, Rohan Gallagher, said the paper maker remained a cyclically plagued stock "only for the brave and long-term investor".
Telstra eased 5c to $3.74. The competition watchdog has rejected Telstra's proposed charges for connecting and disconnecting broadband internet companies' access to its basic copper wire.
The shares have fallen 26 per cent in the past year amid complaints by the company that government regulation is ruining its profitability.
Retail stocks lost ground with Woolworths down 41c to $18.79, Harvey Norman off 4c to $3.81 and Coles Myer down 6c at $10.74.
Regional Express rose 2.5c to $1.075. The airline said it would grow its fleet by five planes this year to better meet expanded operational requirements.
Fletcher Building fell 12c to $7.50. The Australasian construction company denied it was considering moving its primary sharemarket listing to Australia.
A firmer gold price helped Newcrest Mining, up 71c to $23.80. Lihir Gold rose 8c to $2.76 and Kingsgate 18c to $6.62. Bendigo fell 3c to $2.26 and Newmont 9c to $7.28.
The most traded stock was Sherlock Bay Nickel Corp with nearly 83 million shares worth $9.8 million traded. Shares in the iron ore developer rose 2.7c to 10.5c.