Australian market closes lower on Monday

The Australian share market has closed down on Monday, losing all the progress it has made over the past year, as uncertainty grips the markets following U.S. President Trumps executive order spree, and caution ahead of the upcoming company reporting period.

At 1615 local time AEDT, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index struggled today, down 52.5 points, or 0.92 percent, to 5,661.5, while the larger All Ordinaries index slipped 51.3 points, or 0.89 percent, to finish at 5,714.3 points.

The banks had a rough time today, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia closed down 0.95 percent, the National Australia Bank fell 0.46 percent, ANZ dropped 0.74 percent while Westpac continued the trend, falling a substantial 1.05 percent today.

The miners had mixed results, with Newcrest Metals bucking the trend off of their solid quarterly report, to finish up 1.27 percent, while BHP Billiton was down 0.58 percent, and Rio Tinto held relatively steady, down only 0.03 percent on the day.

Santos did it tough today, down 1.47 percent, Oil Search also backslid, down 0.86 percent, and Woodside Petroleum fell slightly, closing down 0.19 percent.

Grocery giant Woolworths fared poorly, falling 0.97 in trade, while major rivals Wesfarmers didnt fare much better, down 0.90 percent.

Australias airline, Qantas, has a poor showing today, down 1.13 percent, while telecommunications giant Telstra, was also worse for wear, down 0.98 percent at close.

source: Xinhua