SYDNEY, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Australian index opened marginally lower on Friday despite rallies in other global markets.
At 10:35 (AEST), the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was down 4.90 points or 0.09 percent at 5,665.50, while the broader All Ordinaries index was down 3.80 points points or 0.07 percent at 5,727.70.
While Energy stocks and financials have been under pressure, gold and utilities are performing well in morning action.
"The Australian market has been underperforming for the last eight trading sessions and it does look like there is persistent top down selling that is keeping a lid on the market," CMC Markets chief market strategist Michael McCarthy said.
In the financial space, Australia's big banks saw most of the market's loses with The Commonwealth Bank down (0.52 percent), Westpac Bank down (0.59 percent), National Australia Bank down (0.41 percent) and ANZ down (0.30 percent).
In contrast mining stocks rallied with BHP up (0.98 percent), Rio Tinto up (1.08 percent), Fortescue Metals up (2.37 percent) and Newcrest Mining up (0.52 percent).
The country's oil and gas producers struggled with Woodside Petroleum down (0.54 percent), Santos down (1.23 percent) and Oil Search up (0.78 percent).
Australia's largest supermarket chains strengthened with Wesfarmers up (0.69 percent) and Woolworths up (0.04 percent).
While telecommunications giant Telstra was up (0.29 percent), the national carrier Qantas was also higher (1.22 percent) and biomedical firm CSL edged lower (0.09 percent). Enditem
