Banks, resources lead the plunge

The stockmarket took a dive yesterday as a negative US lead and profit-taking dragged down stocks across the board.
The all-important big banking and resources stocks were weaker, and that was that.
"Most of the top 200 stocks are in negative territory today. It [the reason for the fall] is probably a bit from column A and a bit from column B," CMC Markets market analyst David Land said.
"There were negative leads coming from most of the European markets and then flowing into the US, so that never really set us up for a particularly good start to the session."
Mr Land said some investors were taking profits on stocks that had moved quickly upward in recent weeks.
At the close, the ASX200 index was down 67.9 points, or 1.25 per cent, at 5384.3, while the All Ordinaries had fallen 64.7 points to 5367.8.
Among the major banks, the National Australia bank lost 30c to $38, Westpac reversed 37c to $23.87, the ANZ backtracked 34c to $27.62, and the Commonwealth shed 68c to $47.
In the resources sector, BHP Billiton was off 41c at $25.81 and Rio Tinto retreated $1.65 to $72.90.
Woodside Petroleum was 39c lighter at $36.08 while Santos was down 1c at $10.28. Oil Search was down 4c at $3.25.
On Wall Street overnight, the Dow Jones industrial average had fallen 158.46 points to 12,121.71, after a disappointing sales forecast from retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
In the gold sector, Newmont was steady at $5.90, Newcrest dumped 63c to $24.42 and Lihir sagged 10c to $2.95.
The price of gold in Sydney was $US638.80 per fine ounce, down $US1.70 on Monday's close.
Telstra slipped 2c to $3.67, the partly paids were up 1c to $2.25 and Optus-owner Singapore Telecom was steady at $2.45.
Retailer Coles surrendered 25c to $13.38 and Woolworths fell 7c to $21.42.
News Corp lost 42c to $27.56, while its non-voting stock fell 48c to $26.32. Publishing & Broadcasting fell 33c to $20.70 and Fairfax was down 3c to $5.07.
Monopoly wheat exporter AWB was down 4c to $2.82.
Transport group Toll Holdings worsened by 25c to $16.31 after it said its 62 per cent stake in budget airline Virgin Blue could enhance value for Toll shareholders. Virgin Blue was 1c lower at $2.10.
Heavy equipment rental company Emeco Holdings shed 7c to $1.79 as it said earnings so far were in line with expectations.
Minerals explorer Aztec Resources was steady at 26.5c as directors recommended Mount Gibson Iron's takeover offer.