Good start but buyers soon ran out of steam

The sharemarket hit new highs again yesterday before closing in negative territory after the big miners and the energy sector ran out of buyers.
The ASX 200 index hit a high of 5698.2 early before spending the rest of the day tumbling to close at 5649.3, down 20.9 points from Monday's close.
The All Ordinaries hit 5671.1 but closed at 5626.8, off 19.1.
CMC Markets senior dealer Phil Martin said a drop in the oil and metal prices overnight weighed on the resource and energy sectors.
"We saw energy shares fall on the back of the crude price dropping overnight," Mr Martin said. "Metals were also low in London."
"It was a bit of a mixed bag, some of the sectors were slightly up but it really was the energy and materials sectors dragging the market down."
The market lacked direction from Wall Street, which was closed overnight for the national day of mourning for former US president Gerald Ford.
The big miners were slightly weaker with BHP Billiton losing a zack to $25.48 and Rio Tinto dropping 24c to $74.55.
In energy, although Oil Search edged 3c higher to $3.44, Woodside tumbled 63c to $37.68 and Santos was down 10c to $9.79.
The banks were mixed with ANZ gaining 7c to $28.20, the National Australia Bank falling 16c to $40.50, Westpac dropping 10c to $24.12 and the Commonwealth shedding 12c to $49.58.
Entertainment company Village Roadshow fell 4c to $3.06 despite reporting that its net profit should be higher than first expected, thanks to a change in accounting treatment.
Leighton Holdings gained 66c to $20.96 after announcing it had joined an alliance for a major highway upgrade in southern NSW worth $400 million.
Media was weaker, with PBL falling 46c to $20.83, Fairfax losing 7c to $4.76, and News Corp dropping 8c to $28.28 with the non-voters 17c lower at $27.14.
The retailing sector was mixed, with Harvey Norman up 10c to $3.92, Coles up 8c to $14.01 but Woolies down 29c to $23.45 and David Jones off 4c at $4.12. Metcash was up 1c to $4.68.
The goldminers were weaker despite the rising price of gold. Newcrest lost 4c to $26.76, Newmont shed a penny to $5.75 and Lihir dropped 5c to $3.15.
Turnover was 1.52 billion shares worth $2.87 billion.