BHP Billiton was down 1.8% to $A35.54 and Rio Tinto fell 0.9% to close at $65.14 as the market continued to digest recent investor briefings by the mining giants.

Other Australian heavyweights in the red included Fortescue Mining Group, down 4.3% to $5.36 and Newcrest Mining, which closed 2.4% weaker at $7.37.

The S&P/ASX 200 fell as low as 5028 points this afternoon before finishing 0.8% down from yesterday at 5062.

Basic materials was the worst performing sector, down 1.5% on the session.

The iron ore sector was quiet as the commodity traded flat at $US139.10 per tonne and analysts tracked a 7% decrease in Chinese steel production for November.

Standouts included Emergent Resources, down 15.8% to A1.6c and Winmar Resources, up 22.2% to 2.2c.

Trading coincided with a jobs report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicating iron ore-focused Western Australia experienced the largest absolute decrease in seasonally adjusted employment, down 2700 persons over November.

Nickel was one of the big newsmakers, with speculation about a possible upcoming supply restriction from Indonesia affecting the local sector.

GME Resources surged 50% to 3c on momentum from its recent encouraging scoping study for the NiWest nickel project in WA.

Other base metal players posting notable movements on the day included IMX Resources, up 10% to 5.5c and Sabre Resources, which lost 14% to 4.3c.

Copper companies firmed up a bit as the red metal improved 0.9% in value to $US7226/t in a tighter market and OZ Minerals partially corrected a recent plummet with a 12.1% rise to $A2.97.

Pepinnini Minerals and Phoenix Copper also stood out, gaining 13.3% to 1.7c and 11.1% to 4c respectively.



The Australian dollar was last trading at US90.26c.