Some positive energy in market

THE Australian sharemarket looks set to decline at Monday’s open, following US markets lower, but the energy and metals sectors could provide a degree of support through the session.

SPI futures are pointing to a 0.4 per cent, or 28 point, drop at the start of trade, with miners, banks and tech stocks among those tipped to be under selling pressure.

But the fall will be less pronounced than that seen in the US on Friday, where indices dropped between 0.8 and 0.9 per cent, CommSec chief economist Craig James said.

“Base metal prices were generally firm on Friday, so that’s going to be a positive for our market. And the oil price was up a bit over 2 per cent as well. So a degree of support will come into our market from the energy and metals sectors,” he said.

Iron ore and gold miners, meanwhile, are looking at losses after the iron ore price fell a further 1.3 per cent to $US128.75 a tonne and gold dropped close to $US8 an ounce.

Tech and financial stocks could also be hit in Monday’s trade, Mr James warned.

“The tech sector will certainly take its lead from Wall Street, where the Nasdaq was down 0.9 per cent, but that was very much due to the Apple situation.”

Apple stock fell 2.7 per cent on Friday after a US court ruled against it in an antitrust case over its restrictive app store policies.

For financial stocks there will be a degree of concern about what happens if the US Federal Reserve starts to taper in the next few weeks, Mr James said.

Sellers in the US on Friday were mostly taking profits after recent record highs, and were spurred on by negative influences, including the US Federal Reserve pushing ahead with its tapering plans, he said.