Australian stock market dips again

Sydney -- Ongoing U.S. subprime mortgage fears pushed down prices on the Australian share market Tuesday after it had enjoyed its best day in 11 weeks.

Prices were down more than 2 percent in early trading, but recovered to close 0.6 percent lower.

The All Ordinaries Index dropped 40 points to 6,494 and the ASX 200 fell 39 points to 6,433.

News that Citigroup will sell a $6.58 billion stake to the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority alleviated some credit concerns affecting Australian shares.

But the stock price for most of the big Australian banks dropped about 1 percent although Westpac picked up 1.4 percent.

Mining shares also tumbled with Rio Tinto, fighting a $350 billion takeover by BHP Billiton, slipping 1.6 percent to $119.16. BHP-Billiton dropped 14 cents to close at $36.84.

In another takeover battle, hospital operator Healthscope bought a 10-percent stake in Symbion Health to thwart a rival bid by Symbion's biggest shareholder, Primary Health Care.

But Symbion's plans to sell its diagnostics business to Healthscope collapsed when the Australian Tax Office refused to grant capital gains relief for the $2.04 billion deal.

Shares in Symbion fell 3 percent, while Healthscope jumped 1.6 percent.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International.