Australian stocks have lost ground following a flat lead from Wall Street with the All Ords down 18.4 points or 0.3% to 5692.4.

Mining stocks were amongst the biggest losers with Materials Index falling 1.2% to 9422.8 points.

BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP) fell 2.0% to $31.87 and Fortescue Metals Group (ASX:FMG) dived 8.4% to $2.30.

Newcrest (ASX:NCM) is up 1.5% to $14.49 while Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) dropped 2.4% to $57.59.


Market Action here…

Strategic Elements (ASX:SOR) is up 10% to $0.033 after the company announced the start of copper exploration in the deserts of the Officer Basin Western Australia.

Just four companies have been known to be active but the potential rewards are high with any success.

This is Strategic Elements' first collaboration with well-known geologist Dr Franco Pirajno and targets Permian Kupferschiefer (PKS) mineralisation that is more commonly known in Germany and Poland.

Already the company has identified highly anomalous copper in several historic drill holes drilled 8 kilometres apart providing it with a clear exploration focus within the 700 square kilometre project.

Carbon Energy (ASX:CNX) climbed 20.8% to $0.029 with more than 3 million shares traded Pacific Niugini (ASX:PNR) rose 11.4% to $0.078 while OncoSil Medical (ASX:OSL) is up 10% to $0.11 with 2.2 million shares traded.

Elementos (ASX:ELT) gained 16.7% to $0.007 and Liberty Resources (ASX:LBY) rose 11.8% to $0.019.


Blue Chip Stocks

Oil and Gas

Oil Search (ASX:OSH) down 2.1% to $7.55
Santos (ASX:STO) down 1.0% to $8.62
Woodside Petroleum (ASX:WPL) up 0.5% to $34.87


Big 4 banks

ANZ Bank (ASX:ANZ) down 0.5% to $32.95
Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) down 0.8% to $83.38
National Australia Bank (ASX:NAB) down 0.6% to $35.46
Westpac (ASX:WBC) down 1.1% to $32.92


Other banks financials and industrials

AMP (ASX:AMP) down 0.3% to $6.48
Bank of Queensland (ASX:BOQ) down 0.7% to $13.08
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank (ASX:BEN) up 0.2% to $12.31
Macquarie Group (ASX:MQG) down 1.0% to $81.29
Suncorp (ASX:SUN) up 0.4% to $13.40
Telstra (ASX:TLS) down 0.3% to $6.13

Retailers

JB Hi-FI (ASX:JBH) up 0.8% to $21.05
Wesfarmers (ASX:WES) up 0.7% to $44.45
Woolworths (ASX:WOW) flat at $28.50

Proactive Investors Australia is the market leader in producing news articles and research reports on ASX emerging companies with distribution in Australia UK North America and Hong Kong / China.