SYDNEY: Australian share prices closed 1.5 per cent lower on Thursday as banks and resources followed a negative lead from Wall Street, dealers said.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index fell 74.5 points to 4,937.4, while the broader All Ordinaries was down 68.9 points at 5,020.5.
Market volume was 1.68 billion shares worth 5.34 billion (5.1 billion US), with 367 stocks up, 779 down and 321 unchanged.
CMC Markets senior dealer James Foulsham said the Australian market held up reasonably well considering the scale of losses on Wall Street.
"Obviously the US markets were off over 200 points, so it's been pretty negative," he said.
"With such a large downward move you would expect the Aussie market to be hit a bit harder. "The banks are off, but they are not off significantly and they did post some strong gains on Wednesday."
In the banking sector, Westpac was down 62 cents, or 3.15 per cent, at 19.07, ANZ fell 43 cents to 18.37, and the Commonwealth dipped 94 cents to 40.55.
National Australia Bank bucked the trend to rise one cent to 27.61. Among resources firms, BHP Billiton slipped 1.18 dollars, or 2.98 percent, to 39.80, while Rio Tinto closed down 1.55, or 1.26 per cent, at 121.60.
Commsec chief equities economist Craig James said there was a bright sport for the market in better-than-expected June labour force data showing unemployment fell 0.1 points to 4.2 per cent in June.
"The resources boom and large capital expenditure on infrastructure projects are assisting the Australian labour market in weathering the global economic slowdown," James said.
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