ENM: Australian Stocks Finish Day Lower WIth Japanese Markets Closed
Despite a rebound in Australian manufacturing, equities in the region fished the day lower on the first trading day of 2009, with Japan and China closed until Jan. 5.
Research from Australian Industry Group suggested that Australia's performance of manufacturing index rebounded to a reading of 33.7 in December from 32.7 in November.
Sydney's S&P ASX 200 closed down 8.50 points to 3713.8.
Yields on Australian 10-year bonds are down 2.6 bps to 3.96%, while returns on three-year bonds were down 7.3 bps to 3.85 and the Australian 90-day March 09 contract was down 3.0 ticks to 96.93.
The Australian dollar was down 1.01 cents to 0.6953 against the USD and down 1.09 cents to 0.8500 against the Canadian dollar.
Against the yen, the U.S. dollar was up 0.43 points to 91.19 and the Canadian dollar was up 0.18 points to 74.56.
