ASX down in early trade but on track for monthly gain

The local share market has dropped from record high levels, with almost every sector losing ground in the absence of leadership from the US, where Wall Street was closed for the Thanksgiving public holiday.

About noon AEDT on Friday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 41.4 points, or 0.49 per cent, to 8,402.9, while the broader All Ordinaries had fallen 38.2 points, or 0.44 per cent, to 8,661.8.

With a few hours of trading left, the ASX200 was on track to finish the week up 0.1 per cent and the month of November up three per cent - its best monthly gain since a 4.2 per cent rise in July.

The index is also up 10.7 per cent since the start of the year.

At midday, every ASX sector was in the red except for tech, which was flat.

The telecommunications and financial sectors were the biggest losers, declining 0.6 per cent.

All of the big banks were lower with ANZ down 1.0 per cent, NAB dropping 0.7 per cent, CBA dipping 0.5 per cent and Westpac falling 0.4 per cent.

In the heavyweight mining sector, BHP was down 0.2 per cent, Fortescue had declined 0.8 per cent and Rio Tinto had fallen 0.5 per cent.

Resolute Mining was up 4.8 per cent as the goldminer announced it had paid another $US50 million ($77 million) to the government of Mali - on top of $US80 million ($123 million) already paid - to resolve supposed tax issues that resulted in the surprise detention of Resolute's CEO and two other employees earlier in November.

Select Harvest had grown 2.3 per cent as the nut-grower said it had swung to a $1.5 million profit for the financial year ended September 30, after a $114.7 million loss the previous year.

Managing director David Surveyor said the result showed the business was returning to normal operations and was well positioned to move forward, with supply and demand dynamics for the industry returning to a more balanced position.

The Australian dollar was buying 65.07 US cents, from 64.84 US cents at Thursday's ASX close.