Shares end year in the red

June 30, 2008, 7:34pm,  121 views

The Australian share market ended the day as it did the fiscal year - in the red.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 closed down 0.4 percent at 5215.3 points, bringing its losses for 2007-08 to nearly 17 percent.

This is the first year of losses since 2003-04 when the index contracted by five percent and its worst financial year since 1982 when the then-benchmark index fell 32.4 percent.

Superannuation funds will soon be reporting losses to angry members and many punters will be tempted to shift money into cash or fixed interest.

Personally, I don’t see much logic to the downturn in Australian shares. We still have a strong economy and high company profits.

The selling seems to be driven by concerns about America and what may happen in Australia, rather than what’s actually happening.

It’s a good time, I think, to have a diverse portfolio, but no time to panic.