Australian stocks down 0.52 percent

Australian stocks were down 0.52 percent in early trade Tuesday after Wall Street suffered another slump and European stocks dropped after Greece said it would miss its deficit targets.

Australian stocks were down 0.52 percent in early trade Tuesday after Wall Street suffered another slump and European stocks dropped after Greece said it would miss its deficit targets.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 shed 33.5 points or 0.86 percent to be at 3,863.5 shortly after opening but recovered to be down just 20.4 points or 0.52 percent at 3,876.6 after 30 minutes of trading.

"After posting a 2.8 percent fall yesterday the ASX 200 is currently set to unwind approximately 80 points or 2.1 percent lower at 3,816 on broad based selling," IG Markets analyst Cameron Peacock said.

CommSec analyst Steven Daghlian said the fall was not as bad as it could have been, after the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 258.08 points (2.36 percent) at 10,655.30 at its Monday close, its lowest level since September 2010.

The Australian dollar, which could be affected by the central bank's decision on interest rates later Tuesday, was trading at 94.98 US cents, its lowest level since September 2010.

The Reserve Bank of Australia is widely expected to leave its official cash rate on hold at 4.75 percent.

-- Dow Jones Newswires contributed to this story --

Source : AFP