Price falls continue across the board

ANOTHER day of lower metal prices and the sharemarket closed lower as both the big miners and major banks backtracked.
The ASX 200 was down 60.9 points to 4976.8, while the All Ordinaries fell 55.6 to 4939.4.
Macquarie Equities associate director Lucinda Chan said this was a continuation of the sell-off seen earlier in the week.
"Now things are just coming off more and getting a bit stabilised, things might get back to a more reasonable pricing level now," Ms Chan said. "The weakness has taken everything down across the board."
However, investors should not be alarmed by the correction, she said.
"The fundamentals haven't changed it's just that the prices have really been pushed up hard by fund managers.
"These guys have got big, deep pockets and they can come and go when they choose to."
The big miners were hit by the stalled metals prices, with BHP Billiton falling 84c to $26.45 and Rio Tinto down 39c to $76.85. Base metals miner Zinifex tumbled 28c to $10.26. It was trading at $13.54 a fortnight ago.
A softer oil price pushed energy producers lower with Woodside 82c weaker at $43, Oil Search 6c lower to $3.98 and Santos off 21c to $10.90. Hardman was down 7c at $1.80.
Banks fell, with ANZ sliding 22c to $26.43, the Commonwealth down 22c to $43.99, NAB 38c weaker at $35.23 and Westpac off 30c to $22.85.
Macquarie Bank fell 15c to $64 and St George Bank shed 41c to $28.99.
Upmarket retailer David Jones rose 11c to $2.80 after reporting a 3.3 per cent increase in sales for the three months to April 29 on solid sales of clothes, shoes, cosmetics and home entertainment products.
Harvey Norman added 6c to $3.84 while Coles Myer dipped 8c to $11.24 and Woolworths fell 13c to $18.96.
Telstra shares eased 3c to $3.79 after the telecom sliced $700 million off its capital expenditure guidance.
In media, PBL was 4c lower at $18.95 after it said it was considering partially listing its Macau casino joint venture, confirming market speculation. Fairfax fell 4c to $3.82.
Toll road operator Macquarie Infrastructure Group, steady at $3.29, will spend up to £70 million ($174.22 million) on a link to one of its main toll roads in the UK's West Midlands.
Evans & Tate fell 1.5c, or 15 per cent, to 8.5c. The West Australian winemaker says it will "strenuously resist" an application to wind it up by Australian Beverage Distributors.
Investment and insurance provider Tower rose 20c to $2.55 after reporting a first-half net profit of $NZ32.5 million ($27.5 million), up from $NZ21 million.
The price of gold in Sydney slid $US23.90 to $US645.10 an ounce.
Goldminers headed south with it, Newcrest dropping 43c to $20.16, Newmont losing 23c to $6.62 and Lihir down 16c to $2.76. It was $3.64 a fortnight ago. Bendigo fell 3c to $1.95.
Novogen fell 9c to $2.68. The drug developer has appointed Professor Alan Husband as an executive director.
The most traded stock on the market was Telstra with more than 47 million shares traded for $178.6 million.