Late retreat by banks puts index back on the slide

The stockmarket reverted to last week's trend and closed lower yesterday, following a retreat from positive territory in afternoon trading by the big banks and despite some big leaps in favoured stocks.
Austock senior client adviser and market strategist Michael Heffernan said the banks and the market had drifted after the release of figures on wages growth.
"That might have frightened the horses a bit and some people may have thought that meant an interest rate rise might be back on the agenda," Mr Heffernan said.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics said that the wage price index was up 3.8 per cent from a year ago.
At the close, the ASX200 index was 5.7 points lower at 5429.9, while the All Ordinaries was down 6.3 points at 5399.1.
On the Sydney Futures Exchange the December share price index contract reversed 16 points to 54264, a reversion to the last fortnight's trend of closing below the physical.
Among the banks, the National Australia Bank lost 1c to $39.24, the Commonwealth backtracked 8c to $48.42, the ANZ retreated 5c to $28.85 and Westpac was down 32c at $24.69.
In the resources, lower prices for base metals helped drive down BHP Billiton by 35c to $26.50 and Rio Tinto was down $1.47 at $75.08.
Woodside Petroleum was off 74c at $37.43 but Santos firmed 4c to $10.90. Oil Search gained 2c to $3.42 and Roc Oil was 6c better at $3.20.
Retailer Coles Myer was off 14c at $13.59 after it reported that sales rose by only 3 per cent in the first quarter.
Supermarket rival Woolworths jumped 49c to $21.82.
Poor old Telstra sagged 6c to $3.80 as the first day of the T3 institutional offer got under way.
Optus owner Singapore Telecom firmed 2c to $2.40.
News Corp weakened 10c to $29.02 after boss Rupert Murdoch said the company would take a 10 per cent stake in newspaper rival John Fairfax Holdings Ltd if it needed to. News's non-voters were 14c lower at $28.00.
Fairfax shed 1c to $4.81 and PBL rose 22c to $20.27.
The price of gold in Sydney at 1633 AEDT was $US622.60 per fine ounce, down US90c from Tuesday's close.
Newmont Mining was 4c down at $5.87, Newcrest lost 34 cents at $23.14, and Lihir eased 4c to $2.92.
Among the big winners were fertiliser manufacturer Incitec Pivot, which soared $4.56, or 18.45 per cent, to $29.27 after reporting a healthy rise in annual profit despite the drought.
BlueScope Steel jumped 57c to $7.93 after saying trading in the first four months of the year had been encouraging and net profit during that period exceeded $250 million.
Energy utility Alinta rose 17c to $10.59 as it announced a cash offer to buy the remaining 80 per cent share of Alinta Infrastructure Holdings (AIH) that it does not already own.
Bread and margarine maker Goodman Fielder nudged up a penny to $2.10 as it said it expected to meet its annual profit forecast despite higher wheat and canola prices and difficult trading conditions.
Insurance Australia Group was 13c heavier at $5.74 as it said it was on track to deliver at the high end of its full year guidance.
Share registry operator Computershare ascended 79c to $8.50 after upgrading its earnings forecast for fiscal 2007.
The top traded stock by volume was Range Resources, with 87.1 million shares worth $2.4 million changing hands. It finished up 0.5c at 2.9c despite news from the Horn of Africa that the Islamic Courts army was moving on Puntland, where Range has its permits.