The S&P/ASX 200 closed 1% or 4.2 points lower to 4308.3 this afternoon and the All Ordinaries also felt the pressure, falling 0.06% to 4330.1 points.

However, most miners managed to keep their heads above water with healthy gains stretching among the majors.

It was also reflected in the basic material index which increased 1.6%, the highest moving ASX subsector on the day.

BHP Billiton was up 1.6% to $A32.80 and Rio Tinto was trading 3.6% higher at $56.86 after releasing a half-year profit yesterday of $6 billion, down from $8 billion in the previous half.

Among the junior miners, Elemental Minerals shares soared by 13.6% to 79.5c after announcing it had intersected high-grade potash mineralisation from its Sintoukola project in west Africa.

Sunseeker Minerals remained in a trading halt for a second day pending the announcement of a potential acquisition.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released data which shows employment increased to 11.5 million in July while unemployment increased to 631,700.

The unemployment rate remained steady at 5.2% between June and July and the participation rate was also stagnant, sitting at 65.3%.

The ABS said the aggregate monthly hours worked decreased to 1.6 billion hours from a revised June 2012 estimate, although it still increased by 13.4 million hours on the previous month’s figures.

In seasonally adjusted estimates, the male unemployment rate increased 0.2 points to 5.2% and the female unemployment rate decreased 0.3 points to 5.3%.

Findings also revealed the number of people looking for full-time work increased 14,600 to 457,600.