Australian stockmarket slides as Wall St wavers ahead of Fed meeting THE stockmarket was heading for its biggest fall in the past two weeks as profit-taking emerged after strong gains in recent months and a loss of upward momentum on Wall Street overnight. A weaker Australian dollar helped some exchange-rate-sensitive stocks, but dovish comments from Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens didn't stop the share market falling. At 11.45am AEDT the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.4 per cent at 5420.3 after hitting an intraday low of 5417.4. The index hit a five-year high of 5457.3 on Monday. It was up 3.9 per cent so far this month and 17 per cent this year. Some traders favoured profit-taking on mining companies, banks and high-yield plays such as Telstra after strong gains in recent months. "Resources look a bit stretched for now, so we have been taking some profits for clients," BBY institutional dealer Peter Argyrides said. He was an advocate of resources companies, particularly iron-ore miners, in early July, when share prices were depressed by concerned about a looming reduction in stimulus from the Federal Reserve and a potential hard landing in China. "Even the banks look a bit stretched, and if we start seeing domestic interest rate increases next year, that's where the underperformance in banks and other high yield stocks could occur," Mr. Argyrides said. People aren't willing to sell because the yield is still there, but high yields may eventually be outweighed by potential capital losses. Mining companies including BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals were down 1.1 per cent to 1.7 per cent today. Commonwealth Bank of Australia fell 0.9 per cent, but ANZ, National Australia Bank and Westpac rose 0.7 per cent to 1.9 per cent after ANZ's cash profit and dividend exceeded market expectations. ANZ announced a final dividend of 91 cents, beating market expectations that centred on $0.86. ANZ's fiscal 2013 cash profit of $6.498 billion exceeded expectations by 0.5 per cent to 1.0 per cent, according to brokers. Pre-provision operating profit was below estimates, however, as noninterest income was pushed down by a weaker-than-expected performance in global markets. BBY's Mr Argyrides expects a 5250-5550 range on the S&P/ASX 200 before year-end. Among stocks that rose Tuesday, QBE Insurance gained 0.5 per cent after the central bank governor told a financial markets conference that the Australian dollar's current level wasn't consistent with underlying economic conditions. Mr Stevens also said concern over recent rapid gains in house prices was premature. The Australian dollar fell about 0.6 per cent after his comments, and the interest rate market moved to imply no change in interest rates over the next 12 months, after recently factoring in a small rise in the current record low cash rate of 2.5 per cent.