Profit-takers force sharemarket lower

The stockmarket finished lower yesterday with profit-taking and energy stocks dragging it down.
At the close, the ASX200 index was down 23.4 points at 5259.4 points, while the All Ordinaries fell 21.4 to 5223.9.
On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the December share price index contract was 17 points lower at 5261, on a volume of 11,340 contracts.
Ausbil Dexia chief executive Paul Xiradis said the energy stocks were hit by a lower oil price.
"Conversely you are seeing the diversified resources such as Rio and BHP outperform the market today, which has been a trend for the past week," Mr Xiradis said.
The US provided a weak lead with Dow Jones losing 15 points to 11852, the S&P 500 slipping 3.47 to 1349.95 and Nasdaq falling 7 to 2308.
The local oilies were led down by Woodside, which lost 77c to $39.12 and Santos, down 20c to $10.45.
Oil Search bucked the trend and rose 1c to $3.30.
Mr Xiradis said Suncorp-Metway's proposed $7.87 billion takeover of general insurer Promina also drew the attention of investors.
"We've seen Promina trade quite strongly up on the announcement although it's pulled back now," Mr Xiradis said.
"We've also seen Suncorp trading quite strongly on the view that perhaps another predator might actually bid for Suncorp."
Shares in Suncorp closed down 10c at $22.20 after soaring $1.22 to a record $23.52. Promina rose 82c to $7.30.
The big miners were marginally lower with BHP Billiton shedding 2c to $26.08 and rival Rio Tinto falling two bob to $71.20.
The banks were mixed with ANZ rising 3c to $27.81, the CBA dropping 17c to $46.96, NAB shedding 8c to $37.62 and Westpac giving up 11c to close at $22.94.
Bank of Queensland rallied 36c higher to $16.35 after posting a 21 per cent increase in underlying profit to $82 million for 2005-06.
Macquarie Bank climbed 42c to $70.40 and St George Bank gained 6c to $31.65. Bendigo Bank dived 19c to $14.94 and ambitious Bundaberg building society Wide Bay Australia was down 5c at $11.10.
Retailer Woolworths picked up 11c to $20.71, Coles Myer was 8c lower at $14.20, Harvey Norman was flat at $3.63 and David Jones slid 3c to $3.64.
Media stocks were down after proposed new laws passed through the Senate, with PBL losing 20c to $19.25, News Corp shedding 34c to $28.21 and the non-voters slipping 23c to $27.14. Fairfax fell 5c to $4.42.
Printing and media services business PMP gained 16c to $1.885 after revealing it had been approached by a buy-out group.
The spot gold price was slightly higher and at $US574.40 an ounce, up $US1.90 from Wednesday's close.
The goldminers were mixed with Newcrest shedding 10c to $22.32 and Lihir gaining 5c to $2.98. Newmont was flat at $5.56. Poor old Bendigo Mining seems to have steadied at 94c.
Junior explorer Range Resources was the most traded with 79.9 million shares changing hands worth $2.7 million.
Range rose 0.2c to 3.1c after announcing a $US50 million ($67.5 million) deal for Canadian Canmex to explore Range's blocks in Puntland, Africa.