Afternoon update: ASX down 0.65% despite unemployment rate increasing

The Australian sharemarket experienced a late trading decline, despite a strong Wall Street rally, as investors reacted to local data revealing a substantial increase of 55,000 jobs in October, though the unemployment rate inched up from 3.6 per cent to 3.7 per cent.

The S&P/ASX 200 is 0.65 per cent lower at 7,060.

The SPI futures are pointing to a fall of 47 points.

Best and worst performers

The best-performing sector is Utilities, up 0.48 per cent. The sector with the fewest gains is Energy, down 1.48 per cent.

The best-performing large cap is Aristocrat Leisure (ASX:ALL), trading 2.28 per cent higher at $40.38. It is followed by shares in ResMed (ASX:RMD) and Origin Energy (ASX:ORG).

The worst-performing large cap is Sonic Healthcare (ASX:SHL), trading 4.3 per cent lower at $29.19. It is followed by shares in Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN) and IGO (ASX:IGO).

Asian markets

Japan's Nikkei has lost 0.68 per cent.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng has lost 1.67 per cent.
China's Shanghai Composite has falled 0.64 per cent.

Commodities and the dollar

Gold is trading at US$1964 an ounce.
Light crude is trading 0.73 per cent lower at $76.10
One Australian dollar is buying 64.69 US cents.
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Source: Finance News Network