A WEAK lead from New York and the tail end of Australia's reporting season sent the Australian share market sharply lower yesterday.

The banking and financial services sectors led the local bourse into negative territory, with investment bank Macquarie losing 4 per cent.

The ASX200 lost 70.7 points to 4850.6 while the All Ordinaries fell 64.6 points to 4813.8.

On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the March share price index contract was down 94 points at 4830, on a hefty volume of 26,289 contracts.

ABN Amro Morgans private client adviser Kylie Macdonald said the weakness in the market was across the board.

"The market is down pretty considerably, obviously following the weak lead from the Dow Jones overnight," she said.

"Also all the excitement from dividends and things is calming down and the market is taking a breather."

In the US overnight, investors reacted negatively to Google's warning that web search growth was slowing and signs of weakness in economic data revived worries about the outlook for corporate profits.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 104.14 points at 10,993.41 and the S&P500 Index was down 13.46 points at 1280.66.

At home, the big banks were lower across the board. NAB lost 75c to $35.93, Commonwealth Bank fell $1.14 to $43.71, ANZ dropped 37c to $25.35 and Westpac sank 41c to $23.20.

Elsewhere in the financial services sector, Macquarie Bank tumbled $2.58 to $61.65 as its ill-fated bid for the London Stock Exchange officially lapsed, and Suncorp Metway shed 81 to $19.65.

Among resources stocks, BHP Billiton gave up 22c to $24.03 and Rio Tinto shed 95c to $70.25.

Bucking the downward trend was Macarthur Coal, which rose 21c to $5.43 after reporting a 240 per cent spike in first-half earnings.

Media company PBL shrank 19c to $16.85 and Fairfax retreated 5c to $3.92. News Corp stock weakened 7c to $23.10, while its preferred scrip edged down 1c to $21.82.

Meanwhile, Qantas descended 6c to $4.04. Unions are preparing for a campaign of industrial action against the airline.

Telco Telstra scraped off 1c to $3.84.

In other news, shares in troubled wheat exporter AWB continued to freefall, losing 4 per cent to close 15c lower at $3.62.

Prime Minister John Howard says the Government has considered assuming control of wheat exports to Iraq while exporter AWB is banned from the market, but is unlikely to go ahead with the move.

Insurer OAMPS slumped 6 per cent, losing 21c to $3.29 despite sticking to its 2005-06 guidance and reporting a 17 per cent lift in first-half earnings.

The spot price of gold in Sydney closed at $US561, up $US5.60 on yesterday's close.

In the gold sector, Newmont lost 10c to $7.20 and Newcrest slipped 20c to $21.00.

Lihir nudged up 1c to $2.14.

The top traded stock by volume was mobile phone and gold exploration company Takoradi, with 45.74 million shares worth $402,436 changing hands. Takoradi shares were 0.1c higher at 0.9c.

National turnover was 1.31 billion shares worth $4.87 billion, with 683 stocks down, 396 up and 300 unchanged.