Another Bleak Day for Australian Stocks

The Australian share market remained weak Wednesday, dragged down by lower prices for oil and base metals, despite a solid recovery earlier on Wall Street.

Prices dropped 1 percent overall with the All Ordinaries Index down 61 points to 6,433 and the ASX 200 lost 63 points to 6,370.

In the mining sector, BHP Billiton said it was pushing ahead with plans to takeover its major rival, Rio Tinto. But both companies suffered in share trading with BHP down 1.5 percent to $36.08 and Rio Tinto off 0.5 percent at $117.95.

Woodside Petroleum was 1.8 percent lower as the price of a barrel of West Texas crude oil fell $3.27 to $94.39.

The big banks also suffered with share prices slipping 10 to 30 cents.

Spot gold fetched $807.40 an ounce.

The Australian airline Qantas, handed a fine of more than $61 million in the United States for price fixing, saw its share price fall 1.5 percent to $5.07.

The Australian dollar was buying 87.57 U.S. cents, 95 Japanese yen, 42.3 British pence and 59.1 euro cents.