THE sharemarket fell this morning, with National Australia Bank leading a sell-off in banks after its strategy update failed to give any fresh bullish catalysts, and its cost-cutting plan undershot market expectations.
Banks were also weighed down by US peer weakness and negative comments from brokers including UBS and Deutsche Bank. Resources took up some of the slack.
At 12.50pm AEDT, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.35 per cent at 5100 points after falling to 5093.9, a four-day low. The index was up 10 per cent year to date. It hit a 4 1/2 year high of 5163.5 yesterday, but closed down 0.6 per cent.
NAB was down 2.3 per cent after outlining plans for $800 million in cost savings over the next five years. The cost savings were at the low end of market expectations of $800m to $1 billion. Other major banks including Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and ANZ fell 0.7 per cent to 1.5 per cent.