The Australian stock market is trading weak on Tuesday with investors mostly treading cautiously amid a lack of triggers from Wall Street. Some profit taking after the previous session's strong gains is also contributing to the decline.
Energy, industrial and consumer discretionary are trading weak. Financial, mining and healthcare stocks are trading mixed.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index, which declined to 4,103.5, is currently trading at 4,116, down 20.9 points or 0.5 percent from its previous close. The broader All Ordinaries index is down 22.9 points or 0.5 percent at 4,161, off the day's low of 4,151.
Panaust, Seven West Media, Boart Longyear, Qantas Airways, Onesteel, Paladin Energy, QR National and Fortescue Metals are trading lower by 2 to 3.3 percent.
Beach Energy, UGL, Iluka Resources, WorleyParsons, Fairfax Media, James Hardie Industries and Boral are also trading notably lower.
Shares of engineering firm Downer EDI are down nearly 2.5 percent. The company has reportedly won a contract worth A$71.7 million to install power lines and substations at BHP Billiton's Jimblebar iron ore mine in Western Australia's Pilbara region.
On Wall Street, stocks ended on a mixed note amid lackluster trades on Monday, with investors mostly treading cautiously ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting.
The major averages ended the day on opposite sides of the unchanged line, with the Dow stuck in the red. While the Dow edged down 25.4 points or 0.2 percent to 12,741.8, the Nasdaq rose 22.5 points or 0.8 percent to 2,895.3 and the S&P 500 crept up 1.9 points or 0.1 percent to 1,344.8.
Major European markets too ended mixed on Monday. While the French CAC 40 index declined by 0.7 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index and the German DAX index edged up by 0.2 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.
U.S. crude oil futures settled lower on Monday, on demand growth concerns as eurozone financial woes continued unabated. Crude for July delivery dropped $0.76 or 0.9 percent to close at $83.27 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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