Aust stocks set to open lower

The Australian market looks set to open lower after a mixed and lacklustre performance on international markets with Wall Street closed and China turning in disappointing growth data.

At 0650 AEDT on Tuesday, the March share price index futures contract was down seven points at 5,249.

China's economy last year registered flat growth of 7.7%, the same as in 2012 and maintaining its slowest expansion in more than a decade, as the government warned of "deep-rooted problems" including a mountain of local authority debt.

Economists had expected 7.6% growth.

Wall Street was closed for the Martin Luther King Jnr public holiday.

Locally, no major economic or equities news is expected.

In Australia, the market yesterday closed lower but recovered from solid losses in the middle of the day to be only slightly down.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 10.9 points, or 0.21%, at 5,295 points.

The broader All Ordinaries index was down 8.8 points, or 0.17%, at 5,307.6 points.