The Australian sharemarket fell at the open, as investor jitters over the economic and property market slowdown as well as ongoing tension in the Middle East dragged the bourse lower amid a flurry of company news.
The S&P/ASX 200 was down 36.8 points, or 0.4 per cent to 9213.8 at 10.23am AEST . It was a broad-bases decline, with all 11 sectors bar utilities opening lower as investors continued to digest Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock's hawkish threat on Tuesday afternoon to raise interest rates again if inflation did not abate.
The move down followed losses on Wall Street overnight, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones closing down 0.3 per cent while the Nasdaq fell 0.6 per cent as tensions between the United States and Iran caused the price of crude oil to swing. The US military said it had disabled the steering gear of a cargo ship attempting to violate a blockade of Iranian ports on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST ).
"The lack of substantial news or progress in talks, with Iran doubling down on its commitment to govern the Strait of Hormuz, is keeping the risk for oil prices skewed to the upside and US indices on hold," said Kyle Rodda, senior financial market analyst at Capital.com.
Utilities were, as mentioned, the one bright spot, opening 1.7 per cent higher led by a 4.6 per cent advance in AGL Energy after the company booked a 575 per cent surge in net profit in full-year results released on Wednesday morning.
And bank stocks avoided a larger sell-off after Bullock's hawkishness yesterday. The sector fell 0.3 per cent led by an equivalent drop in Commonwealth Bank, which told the sharemarket the 15 per cent drop-off in mortgage applications it had observed since the Federal budget had stabilised in recent weeks in its full-year earnings result.
Stocks in focus
In company news, Suncorp rose 3.7 per cent despite posting a steep profit drop in its full-year earnings, after the company announced it had dumped KPMG as its auditor in favour of Ersnt & Young.
Meanwhile, a 13.8 per cent drop Seek led the communication services sector to a 1.4 per cent drop, after a jump in profit for the online job advertiser was marred by a $200 million write-down of software-as-a-service investments in its Seek Growth Fund in its full-year result.
ASX Ltd fell 2.1 per cent after the company advised one of its shareholders, Rosherville, was proposing to bring an action on its behalf in the Federal Court in relation to the bungled CHESS project.
And financial technology company Bravura Solutions added 14.7 per cent after posting a nearly 50 per cent surge in profits in its full-year result on Wednesday.

Sumber : AFR