SYDNEY, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Australian market struggled Wednesday with the major lenders all suffering loses.
At the end of Wednesday trade the S&P/ASX 200 index was down 20.6 points or 0.36 percent at 5678.8. The broader all ordinaries index had fallen 21.0 points or 0.36 percent at 5733.70.
"Banks were the main weight on the market today, all the lenders were in negative territory," Commsec market analyst, Tom Piotrowski told Xinhua.
"We saw weaker earnings from U.S investment firm Morgan Stanley overnight and that was the catalyst in pushing lenders lower."
Mining also dipped, however "Energy stocks did quite well when you consider that oil prices have been under a lot of pressure, Piotrowski said."
Commonwealth Bank of Australia fell 1.05 percent, National Australia Bank lost 0.88 percent
Westpac dropped 1.28 percent and ANZ ended 1.05 percent lower.
BHP Billiton dropped 0.62 percent, Rio Tinto recovered to gain 0.57 percent and Newcrest was also up at 0.73 percent.
Santos added 2.09 percent, Woodside Petroleum also made gains up 1.22 percent while Oil Search slipped, losing 0.41 percent.
Wesfarmers edged higher, up 0.19 percent and Woolworths finished lower, down 0.61 percent.
Qantas tumbled, losing 2.97 percent and Telstra was also down at 0.67 percent.
