Reuters: Hot Stocks: Australian shares fall as growth concerns mount, financials, miners weak

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Australian shares fall as growth concerns mount, financials, miners weak May 2nd 2013, 00:29 Wed May 1, 2013 8:29pm EDT (Updates to open) SYDNEY May 2 (Reuters) - Australian shares fell 0.5 percent on Thursday, dragged down by financials and miners as disappointing U.S. earnings reports and employment data added to broad concerns over the global economic recovery. Westpac Banking Corp and top lender Commonwealth Bank of Australia lost 1 percent and 0.6 percent respectively. A large selloff in commodities also hurt miners. Heavyweight mining stocks BHP Billiton Ltd dropped 0.6 percent and rival Rio Tinto Ltd eased 0.4 percent. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index gave up 24.4 points to 5,141.8 by 0011 GMT. The benchmark fell 0.5 percent on Wednesday. U.S. stocks fell sharply on Wednesday as the latest economic data continued a trend of indicators pointing to anemic growth while bellwether companies disappointed on revenue. A commodities selloff sent gold prices more than 1 percent lower on Wednesday, while copper also slid due to concerns over growth in top metal consumer China and in the United States. Among the latest pieces of evidence to suggest slower U.S. economic growth, payrolls processor ADP reported Wednesday that private employers added 119,000 jobs in April, well below economists' expectations for 150,000 new jobs. A separate report from the Institute for Supply Management showed the U.S. manufacturing sector expanded only modestly in April. Also, on Wednesday data showed growth in China's factory sector unexpectedly slowed last month as new export orders fell, raising fresh doubts about the world's second-largest economy after a disappointing first quarter. New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index fell 0.6 percent, or 25.4 points to 4,577.6. (Reporting by Thuy Ong; Editing by Shri Navaratnam) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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