ASX edges lower in light trade: Afternoon market wrap

The Australian sharemarket finished slightly lower in light trade, with Victorian, Tasmania and South Australia enjoying a public holiday.

The S&P/ASX200 was down slightly by 0.34% or 14.20 points to 4197.80.

The All Ordinaries Index was also down 0.26% or 11.2 points to 4289.30.

Day’s Winners

Aurora Oil & Gas (ASX:AUT) was up 5.57 % to $3.79. Despite having its headquarters in Perth, Aurora explores for and produces oil and gas in North America. It is also listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: AEF). It has just released an investor report last week where it said it expects to more than double the approximately 69 wells drilled last year.

Copper, zinc and lead miner Kargara (KZL) was up 10.3% to $0.182.

Day’s Losers

Mirabella Nickel (MBN) was down 3.51% to $0.825.

Sigma Pharmaceuticals (SIP) was down 4.39% to $5.45.

Sector movers

The biggest sector winner was the S&P/ASX All Information Technology (Sector) index which rose again 0.60% or 3.0 points to 506.4.

The biggest sector loser was the S&P/ASX 200 Financial-X-A-REIT (sector) which was down 0.75% or 34.4 points to 4531.9.

Currency

The Australian dollar fell today after more positive US jobs data was released over the weekend lifting the US currency. One Australian dollar was buying $USD1.0532 this afternoon.

Asian Markets

In Japan, the NIKKEI 225 was up 0.33% or 32.99 points to 9962.73.

Meanwhile in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng was down 0.27% or 56.58 points to 21029.40