SYDNEY, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The Australian share market has continued its downward fall on Tuesday with losses in most sectors.
At 1151 local time AEST, the S&P/ASX200 index was down 20.40 points, or 0.36 percent, to sit at 5,686.70 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index was also down 20.70 points, or 0.36 percent, to 5,727.00 points.
Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG told Xinhua in a statement that the Australian market is currently struggling, with "strong underperformance" in the financial sector which is proving to be a "headache" for investors.
"We can look at the seasonals and see that aside from last year, where the sector rallied 3.3 percent, the ASX financial sub-sector has seen losses in seven straight prior months of May," Weston said.
"The average loss in May over the past decade is a sizeable 3.4 percent, and that is before you factor in this year, which is taking the prize with a fall thus far of 10.8 percent."
In the banking sector, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia was down 0.09 percent, Westpac also struggled, down 0.05 percent, the ANZ were down 0.05 percent, while the National Australia Bank managed to buck the trend, and gained 0.44 percent.
In mining, BHP were up 0.29 percent, Rio Tinto also gained 0.48 percent, Fortescue recovered from Monday's losses, and were up 0.85 percent, while Newcrest also did well, up 0.48 percent.
In oil and gas, Santos fell, down 0.58 percent, Oil Search also lost ground, down 0.97 percent, while Woodside Petroleum slipped considerably, losing 1.17 percent.
Grocery giant Woolworths continued downward, losing 0.50 percent, while rivals Wesfarmers also had their own struggles, down 1.55 percent in early trade.
Telco giant Telstra were down 0.79 percent, while airline Qantas fell into a nosedive, losing 0.60 percent in the early going.
At 1150 local time AEST, one Australian dollar is buying 74.26 U.S. cents, while crude oil is trading at 49.89 U.S. dollars per barrel.
