The gains made by stocks on the ASX yesterday were almost wiped clean at today’s close, with the S&P/ASX 200 down 45.1 points to 4142.7 points and the All Ordinaries dipping 42.9 points to 4196.6.

According to Bloomberg Australia’s service industry shrank for a third straight month as consumer spending weakened.

The Asia Pacific Index dipped 0.4% to 115.98 points with the Nikkei 225 down 0.6% as China’s central bank cut the daily reference rate by the most since November.

The weaker economic outlook comes as France prepares to sell nearly 8 billion euros ($A10.4 billion) of its debt today in order to maintain its AAA credit rating and to test investor appetite for its bonds.

France is the first country in the eurozone to sell its debt this year, with Germany having sold €4.1 billion of bonds at auction yesterday, ahead of Spain and Italy which are expected to sell debt in the coming weeks that could reach €262 billion in the first quarter.

Concerns the euro debt crisis would infect the global economy increased after Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said deeper cuts in incomes were the only way for the country to remain in the euro area and receive more financing from international creditors to avoid an economic collapse.

“Problems sparked by the European debt crisis are reigniting and people in the market have reaffirmed that the situation has not changed,”Bloomberg quoted Mitsushige Akino from Ichiyoshi Investment Management.

“That’s weakening the euro and hurting exporters with a heavy reliance on Europe.”

After enjoying positive gains yesterday, the major miners took a hit with BHP Billiton down 1.1% to $35.82 per share and Rio Tinto shares down 0.48% to $62.85 per share.

Gold mining giant Newcrest finished at the bottom of the Final Call watchlist, with its shares dropping 1.71% to $30.50 per share.

At 3.51pm (AEDT) the spot price of gold was up marginally to $US1620 an ounce while the Australian dollar held ground and managed to remain above parity with the greenback, fetching $US1.03.

There were mixed results for base metals, with the three-month price for nickel down 0.8% to $US18,770 per tonne, while lead jumped 0.39% to $2068/t for the same period.

Zinc for three-month delivery gained 0.32% to $1875/t while tin made marginal gains up 0.23% to $19,650/t for the same period.

– Bloomberg