Aust shares close lower

Japan’s Nikkei was down 0.9 per cent, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was 1 per cent higher with a burst of merger activity in the telecommunications sector.

“It’s been a while since we’ve seen BHP off six per cent, but that’s what is happening today and the worry is that the rout is not yet done”, Australian Stock Report head of research Chris Conway said.

The broader All Ordinaries index was up 67.3 points, or 1.36 per cent, at 5,025.4 points.

Glencore, the UK-listed company that sparked Tuesday’s market meltdown after falling 30 per cent on concerns over its debt mountain, rallied 17 per cent overnight after it put out a statement saying “our business remains operationally and financially robust – we have positive cash flow, good liquidity and absolutely no solvency issues.”.

USA stocks closed last week higher after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said she still expects to raise interest rates in 2015. 6 per nickel lower and Woodside a minimum of three.eight per nickel more hard off. The Dow Jones Industrial Average give them 0.70 % on Friday, even though the tech-rich Nasdaq lessened one %.

Energy stocks and shares have been also affected, by having Santos down top 7.at least three per penny, Oil Search thee.

Slater and Gordon jumped 2.4 per cent to $2.94 – after spiking as much as 7 per cent earlier in the day – after it released a revised version of its accounts for the past two years.

Locally, Rio Tinto was off 5 per cent, as was Fortescue, while South32 was down 6 per cent to $1.3825.

At 0645 AEST on Monday, the December share price index futures contract was down four points at 5,028.

At 1200 AEST on Wednesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 31.3 points, or 0.64 per cent, at 4,949.7 points.

– National turnover was 371.565 million securities worth $871.789 million.