Buyers back off and down she goes

The sharemarket closed lower yesterday, dragged down by softer commodity prices, weakness among resources stocks and continuing concerns about interest rate rises in the US.
The ASX 200 index slipped 67.8 points or 1.4 per cent to 4901.2 while the All Ordinaries was down 62.3 at 4869.9.
Macquarie Equities adviser Helen Spencer said softer commodity prices and a benign lead from Wall Street combined to weigh on the domestic market.
"The resources in particular seem to have had a bit of a stumble this afternoon," Ms Spencer said. "After a fairly strong rally on Friday we are giving up some of those gains, with profit-taking setting in and nerves about potential interest rate rises in the US still apparent here, with the resources all leading the market lower.
BHP Billiton was down 63c at $26.80, Rio Tinto fell $2.10 to $74.80 and Alumina retreated 22c to $6.28. Woodside Petroleum was 72c lower at $41.92 and Santos fell 29c to $11.16.
Woodside said it was reviewing its 2006 production target after flagging timetable changes at some of its new fields.
There was no let-up for the big banks, the Commonwealth shed 45c to $42, ANZ 23c to $25.19, NAB 43c to $34.02 and Westpac eased 12c to $21.89.
Brambles Industries was steady at $10.68 after it sold its Australian and New Zealand waste management business Cleanaway, and its Australian industrial services division, for $1.83 billion.
Investment fund Babcock & Brown Infrastructure fell 1c to $1.64 as it and gas infrastructure group Australian Pipeline Trust launched a $371.7 million takeover bid for Victorian gas transmission operator GasNet.
Australian Pipeline climbed 9c to $4.33 and GasNet rose 23c to $2.62 after having its credit rating put under review.
Macquarie Infrastructure Group fell 9c to $3.49; it is planning to spin off its Eastern Distributor, M5 and M4 roadways through a public float.
Furniture retailer Nick Scali said it expected its annual net profit for 2005-06 to be in line with last year's result after announcing that the difficult retail environment had pulled down sales. Its shares fell 1c to $1.45.
Catalyst Recruitment Systems downgraded its annual profit forecast after losing its biggest client. Yet the stock rose 6c to 67c.
Putative explorer Newera Uranium debuted at a 6c premium to its 20c issue price after an oversubscribed $3 million public offering. It closed at 23c.
The money from the float will be used to explore projects in Western Australia and the NT, which Newera acquired from Cazaly Resources.
Shares in Trafford Resources began trading at the 20c issue price and closed at 17.5c.
Telstra slid 3c to $3.69 while its rival, Optus parent Singapore Telecom, fell 3c to $2.12.
David Jones slipped 1c to $2.90, Woolworths 16c to $18.67 and Coles Myer 23c to $11.48.
OrotonGroup, down 3c to $1.76, said it expected to deliver an annual net profit of $2 million to $3 million.
Among the goldminers, Newcrest dropped 56c to $19.27, and Newmont fell 8c to $6.80.