REF : DOW JONES NEWS WIRE
AUSTRALIAN STOCK CLOSE:
"Australian shares closed in negative territory Monday after climbing as high as 1% as early positive sentiment on Chinese manufacturing data and U.S. leads faded during the day.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index closed down 5.9 points, or 0.1%, at 4329.3 points, after reaching a high of 4377.5 points in early trading.
U.S. stocks closed higher on Friday and China's Purchasing Managers Index, a key indicator of manufacturing activity released over the weekend, climbed to 53.1 in March, its highest level in 12 months, from 51.0 in February, which was well ahead of expectations of 50.5. Traders said the PMI showed that recent concerns about China's economic growth may have been overstated.
Mining stocks, which are closely tied to China's economic growth, were boosted on the data, with BHP Billiton up 1.5%, Rio Tinto up 1.2% and Fortescue Metals up 2.4%.
The big four banks -- ANZ, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and National Australia Bank -- were all down 0.3%-0.9%.
Shares were hit by investors concerned about Australia's economy after the Australian Industry Group-PricewaterhouseCoopers Australian performance of manufacturing index fell 1.8 points to 49.5 in March, indicating a contraction in activity.
Building approvals for houses and apartments were also a concern, falling in February a seasonally adjusted 7.8% from January, which was worse than expectations of a 0.1% rise.
Leighton continued to fall after its profit guidance downgrade last week, with its shares closing down 1.2% after Deutsche Bank downgraded the company to a sell.
Qantas also had a bad day, down 3.4%, after JP Morgan downgraded the airline to 'neutral' from 'outperform' while expressing caution about fiscal 2013 earnings forecasts given strong domestic capacity growth potentially putting more pressure on yields.
Hastings Diversified also continued to fall, down 7.4%, after Australia's competition regulator voiced concerns about a takeover bid by APA Group. Shares in APA rose 1.8% to A$5.19. "
Source: Dow Jones Newswires.
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