Afternoon market wrap

The Australian market dropped soon after opening this morning, following big falls in Europe overnight, and slowly tried to recover all day before falling again at the close.

The Australian S&P/ASX200 was down 1.23% or 51.9 points to 4152.80, and the All Ordinaries Index was down 1.23% or 52.8 points to 4242.7.

The Australian dollar weakened on the back of lower commodity prices, with one Australian dollar buying $US1.0536.

Biggest winners were pay TV company Austar United Communications, which rose 5.147 % to $1.43, and Telecom NZ holdings – up 3.45% to $1.80.

Perth-based global mining supplies company NRW Holdings fell 6.07% to $3.56.

The biggest sector loser was the All Ordinaries Gold sub-industry, which was down 3.20% or 208.9 points to 6328.80.

All sectors were down today, with the S&P/ASX 200 Telecommunication Services index suffering least – down 0.23% down by 2.6 points to 1110.9.

Asian stocks fell for a third day in a row – the longest stretch this year – while South Korea’s won slid ahead of the deadline on Greece’s debt. Bond risk in Asia rose to a one-month high.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index traded lower today, at 0.76% or 158.32 points to 20647.90.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 also traded down 0.77% or 74.02 points to 9563.61, while Singapore’s Straits Times Index 50 was down 0.62%, or 18.11 points, to 2913.90.

The biggest winner was Hong Kong’s Siberian Mining Group Company, which rose 15.38%. The investment holding company provides digital television technology services in the People’s Republic of China.