SYDNEY (Thomson Financial) - Australian shares are expected to open slightly lower Monday in the last trading session of the year, as investors stay on the sidelines following a lacklustre performance by Wall Street on Friday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 6.26 points or 0.1 percent at 13,365.87 after a decline in new home sales in the US reinforced concerns that the weak housing market will continue to dog the economy in 2008.
The S&P 500 index firmed 2.12 points or 0.1 percent to 1,478.49 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq eased 2.33 points or 0.1 percent to 2,674.46.
Volumes are expected to be very thin during the session, which will close two hours early ahead of the holiday tomorrow, with many traders staying away from their desks until the new year.
'It's a shortened session again today so I can't say it will be a fair dinkum, everybody involved effort,' said Stuart Smith, a private client advisor at Bell Potter Securities.
'They (investors) are trying to keep the index balanced as much as they can,' said Stuart. 'They don't want things to come apart from their percentages.'
The S&P/ASX 200 March futures contract ended its overnight session down 3 points at 6,370.
On Friday, the S&P/ASX 200 closed down 11 points or 0.2 percent at 6,339.9 and the All Ordinaries finished 2.7 points or 0.04 percent lower at 6,423.7.
In London, the FTSE 100 closed down 20.9 points or 0.3 percent at 6,476.9 as investors squared their positions ahead of the year-end.
BHP Billiton closed unchanged at 1,561.0 pence and Rio Tinto eased 12 pence or 0.2 percent to 5,370.0 pence.
Base metals prices were mostly lower on the London Metals Exchange amid concerns about the US economy. Lead was down 3.4 percent, copper was off 2.3 percent, nickel was down 2.2 percent, zinc was 1.5 percent weaker and aluminium was 0.4 percent lower. Tin bucked the trend, firming 1.8 percent.
Light, sweet crude oil for February delivery eased 62 US cents or 0.6 percent to 96 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The most-active February Comex gold price jumped 10.90 dollars or 1.3 percent to 842.70 dollars an ounce.
(1 US dollar = 1.14 Australian dollars)
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