The Australian sharemarket has plunged as weak commodities prices drag on the miners and energy players.

The All Ordinaries fell 1.2 per cent in early trade on Wednesday, also weighed down by a poor Wall Street session.

CommSec market analyst Steven Daghlian said the price of iron ore, which fell another 43 US cents overnight, was hurting the miners’ bottom line.

“The iron ore price has essentially halved in six months. It’s making profitability difficult for many of the miners,” he said.
“And, the price of oil fell by about three per cent last night, so that’s not helping the energy stocks.”

BHP Billiton had fallen $1.73, or 5.4 per cent, to $30.18, Rio Tinto was $1.075 lower at $57.475 and iron ore pure play Fortescue Metals was down 7.5 cents, or 3.7 per cent, at $1.945.

Oil and gas explorer Santos was down 20 cents, or 2.73 per cent, at $7.14, Woodside Petroleum had dropped 46 cents to $34.43 and Oil Search was 10 cents lower at $7.60.

Big losses on Wall Street overnight, amid renewed expectations of higher interest rates and a soaring US dollar, also weighed on the Australian market, Daghlian said.

“Last night, was the worst day for the US market since the start of January; the S&P 500 was down about 1.7 per cent,” he said.

“There continues to be concerns rates are going to be hiked sooner rather than later in the US.”

Among the local big banks, Commonwealth Bank was down 88 cents at $89.80, Westpac had fallen 39 cents to $37.28, ANZ was 33 cents lower at $34.97 and National Bank was 33 cents worse off at $37.43.

Qantas shares fell 3 cents, or 1 per cent, to $2.87 after closing on Tuesday at their highest value since October 2010.

Telstra was 4.5 cents lower at $6.155.