News on profits and China deter market

Overall it was a mixed but lacklustre session, with five of the 12 industry sectors losing ground.

Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton lost ground after Premier Wen Jiabao said China aimed to grow its economy by roughly 7.5 per cent this year, with inflation running at an annual rate of 4 per cent.

That figure, which came in below the big miners' assumption of 8 per cent growth, saw shares in Rio Tinto fall 84?, or 1.3 per cent, to $65.09, while BHP Billiton shed 30? to $35.39. Woodside Petroleum lost 27?, at $36.03.

The healthcare and utilities sectors performed best, with global healthcare company CSL gaining 13? to $33, and Sonic Health rising 13? to $11.78.

Market weakness was compounded by several companies going ex-dividend. They included QBE Insurance, which fell 3.3 per cent to $11.85, Brambles lost 1.4 per cent to $7.11, and Iluka gave up 2.4 per cent to $16.97.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index shed 16.7 points, or 0.39 per cent, to 4256.4.

With reporting season now over, investors turned their thoughts to the state of the economy, and today's Reserve Bank board meeting.

Data provided a mixed view of the economy and despite a rise in the number of job advertisements last month, investors took some value from the market.

According to the Bureau of Statistics, Australian companies made a combined gross profit of $269 billion in 2011, an increase of just 2.1 per cent over the year, after falling 6.5 per cent in the December quarter.

It was the second-worst performance for a calendar year in 17 years, since records began. The worst was 2009, at the height of the financial crisis, when profits fell 13.7 per cent.

A gauge of monthly inflation from TD Securities showed the annual rate had fallen from 2.2 per cent to 2 per cent, after rising by only 0.1 per cent last month.

Coupled with a 5.3-point decline in the Performance of Services Index, an index that tracks conditions in retail, financial and other services sectors, the news provided a spotty outlook of the health of the economy. That adds weight to the view of the majority of economists that the RBA will keep rates on hold.

An increase in newspaper and internet job advertisements provided some good news, with job ads growing 3.3 per cent last month, following a rise of 7.5 per cent in January, up 3.6 per cent on a year ago.