Market on wrong end of the seesaw

The sharemarket staged an afternoon recovery but still finished lower yesterday amid concern that world growth could slow.
The ASX 200 index fell 62.8 points to 4962 and the All Ordinaries was down 59.4 to 4929.7. The indices had bounced off lows of 4934.4 and 4910.2 respectively.
On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the September share price index contract fell 51 points to 4937, on a volume of 21,810 contracts.
ABN Amro Morgan client adviser Margaret Morrissey said the afternoon fightback was spurred by stronger Asian markets, particularly Japan and Hong Kong.
"World growth is slowing down, interest rate hikes are still hurting and the problems in the Middle East are also of concern," Ms Morrissey said.
"The Japan market turned around in the afternoon so that's probably holding us up."
On Wall Street overnight, stocks fell after the Federal Reserve's decision to pause interest-rate increases caused concerns about slowing economic growth.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 45.79 points to 11,173.59.
Among the banks, the Commonwealth reported a rise in annual net profit to $3.93 billion but lost 50c to $46.30. National Australia Bank fell 33c to $36.10, Westpac 7c to $22.68 and ANZ 3c to $26.12.
Among media stocks, News Corp said annual net profit rose to $US2.31 billion ($3.05 billion), up from $US2.13 billion, but slipped 12c to $26.30. Its non-voting scrip fell 31c to $25.19. John Fairfax fell 8c to $3.96 and PBL 12c to $16.93.
Among resource stocks, BHP Billiton, which is facing strike action at its Escondida mine in Chile, fell 57c to $27.23. Rival miner Rio Tinto was also struggling, down $1.45 at $74.40.
The oil and gas producer Woodside fell $1.12 to $41.68.
Engineering group Downer EDI plunged $2.26 to $5.15 after a $163 million write-off led to it reporting a $25 million annual net loss. Leighton Holdings, whose projects include the Southern Cross station in Melbourne and the Lane Cove tunnel in Sydney, lost 81c to $17.13.
Building materials firm Crane Group reported its annual profit rose 52 per cent to $73.87 million, up from $48.56 million the prior year, but warned that deteriorating economic conditions in Australia and New Zealand could trim earnings. Crane firmed 2c to $10.60.
Retailers followed the trend with Woolworths handing back 20c to $19.10, Coles Myer slipping 7c to $10.78 while David Jones was 5c lower at $3.03.
Ms Morrissey said the strength of shares in Telstra, which is expected to announce a 26 per cent fall in annual profit tomorrow, will depend on whether the telecom can keep its promise of paying a dividend of 28c a share for the next few years.
"A lot will depend on whether they are going to maintain the dividend," she said.
Telstra weakened 4c to $3.80 while Singapore Telecommunications, the parent of fellow telecom Optus, eased 1c to $2.06.
Telstra was the top traded stock for the day with 37.6 million shares worth $143.5 million changing hands.
The goldminers were lower, with Newcrest dipping 20c to $19.33 and Newmont backtracking 9c to $6.79.
At 4.45pm the spot price of gold was $US638.50, down $US7.00 from the previous close.
Preliminary market turnover was 1 billion shares valued at $4.5 billion.