Australian shares lost ground today, following on from a poor performance on the major international indices on Friday night.

Weighing on sentiment was a stream of bad news, ranging from S&P's eurozone credit downgrade to poor domestic job ads data.

Losses among the big four helped drag the local market lower; ANZ dropped 1.6% whilst WBC declined 1.5%.

The major miners fell amid weaker commodity prices; BHP descended 1.7% while rival Rio Tinto depreciated 0.5%.

However Leighton Holdings bucked the trend (+4.4%) after lifted its 1H12 profit guidance from the previous $250 million, to $270 million.

The ASX 200 let go of 49 points (-1.2%), settling at 4147.

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Evening Market Analysis: Aussie Shares Struggle is a post from: Australian Stock Report Market Pulse Blog