Australia’s sharemarket today snapped a four-day winning streak, closing a little weaker despite gains to miners and some banks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index closed down 5.8 points, or 0.13 per cent, at 4524.1 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index fell 5.9 points (0.13 per cent) at 4536.2 points.

On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the September share price index contract was 13 points lower at 4495 on a volume of 19,222 contracts.

Austock Securities senior client adviser Michael Heffernan said it was comforting that the market had held over the psychological barrier of 4500 points.

“After a good performance yesterday, it is not a bad result at all in my view,” Mr Heffernan said.

“The power of the market clearly was the relatively strong performance by some of the resources stocks.

“It is a very strong recovery from the depths of about a month ago.”

Mining giant BHP Billiton closed up 26 cents (0.65 per cent) at $40.46, while rival Rio Tinto rose 46c to $71.50. Rio late today announced a multi-billion dollar joint venture with Chinalco in Guinea.

Gold producers were mixed, with Newcrest Mining down 6c at $32.72; Lihir Gold was steady at $4.06.

Gold in Sydney was trading at $US1168.20 per fine ounce, up $US4.25 on yesterday’s close.

Overall the materials and resources sectors both finished in the black.

Financials also finished slightly up, despite a mixed performance by the big banks.

Commonwealth Bank was up 41c at $53.01 and Westpac rose 10c to $24.25 but National Australia Bank declined 1c to $25.33 and ANZ fell 4c to $23.19.

Macquarie finished down 47c at $38.39.

Major energy stocks were weaker, with Woodside Petroleum down 44c at $41.72 and Oil Search losing 9c to $5.88.

Santos dropped 24c to $13.57 while Origin Energy edged down 1c at $15.63.

(Source: TheAustralian.com.au)