Global jitters hit home

The Australian sharemarket has suffered its biggest one-day fall in more than five years after a sell-off on China's stock exchange sent shockwaves around the globe.
Fears the Chinese government would halt speculative investment led to a 9 per cent decline on China's Shanghai Composite Index, and spooked investors, who punished companies exposed to Chinese demand.
The ASX 200 Index closed 161.3 points lower, or 2.69 per cent, at 5832.5, after falling as much as 3 per cent during the day.
The All Ordinaries tumbled 161.1 points to 5816.5.
For both indices, it was the biggest one-day fall since September 17, 2001, when the ASX 200 lost 4.7 per cent and the All Ords 4.8 per cent. On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the March share price index contract closed 196 points lower at 5802.
But with the economy in great shape, Austock Brokers senior client adviser Michael Heffernan said the pain was expected to be short-lived.
"This sort of day is a day when you're looking to buy rather than looking to sell," he said. "I think our market will be [up] about 10 per cent this year, so we're going to be zigzagging on the way to get there, and we'll have our ups and we'll have our downs."
In the US overnight, the Dow Jones industrial average plunged 416.02 points, or 3.29 per cent, to 12,216.24, and the S&P 500 fell 50.33 points, or 3.47 per cent, to 1399.04.
Locally, the big miners took a walloping. BHP Billiton dropped $1.72 to $27.13 and rival Rio Tinto plunged $4.01 to $75.60. Woodside Petroleum fell $1.04 to $37.26 as oil stablemate Santos slipped 31c to $9.36 and Oil Search lost 21c to $3.54.
In banking, the Commonwealth Bank sank 70c to $49.96, National Australia Bank fell 32c to $40.36, Westpac was down 54c to $25.46, and ANZ dropped 42c to $29.30.
Woolworths was a rare bright spot, rising 46c to $27.20, a day after a bumper first-half result from the grocery group, while rival Coles slipped 26c to $15.36.
Harvey Norman, the furniture and electronics retailer, dipped 6c to $4.35 after reporting a more than one-third gain in first-half net profit on the same period a year ago.
Property group Lend Lease fell 36c to $18.05 following a flat interim net profit.
Energy entity Alinta posted a 26 per cent drop in annual profit. Its shares fell 20c to $14.25.
Macquarie Media fell 23c to $4.59, despite a big jump in first-half net profit to $38 million.