The Australian share market opened lower this morning following a drop on Wall Street overnight. Traders were also waiting for news from the Reserve Bank, which is tipped to keep interest rates steady following today’s board meeting.

At midday, the S&P/ASX200 index was down 37 points, while the All Ordinaries lost 29.

US stocks fell more than one per cent on Monday following Standard and Poors’ debt-rating-downgrade of three major brokerages. Wachovia Bank’s ousting of CEO Ken Thompson also rattled financial stocks.

At Monday's close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 134 points, while the Nasdaq composite had shed 31.

In Asian trading today, Japan’s Nikkei was down 237 points at noon, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 275.

Meanwhile in ASX news, grocery wholesaler Metcash today posted a record full year net profit of $197 million – up 18 per cent on last year.

Metcash said that despite rising fuel costs, the group had seen double digit growth from its core distribution division IGA. CEO Andrew Reitzer also said that Metcash was looking to expand beyond its grocery and liquor divisions, and had been short-listed in its bid for Primary Health Care’s pharmaceutical business.

In other news, mining group Herald Resources this morning recommended a raised $523 million takeover offer by a consortium led by Indonesian miner Antam.

In a statement, the Australian-listed Sumatran zinc miner also recommended its shareholders reject a lower bid by Indonesian coal miner Bumi. All eyes will now be on the coal miner to see if it will be prepared to trump Antam’s latest bid. Herald shares were trading down five cents at midday today.

Finally, agricultural exporter ABB Grains said this morning that it plans to raise $170 million through the placement of 18 million shares to institutional investors.

ABB, which is Australia’s top barley exporter, said the funds would be used to build a new malthouse, which would increase the company’s malt output by 22 per cent, and help ABB meet Asia’s increasing thirst for beer. ABB said that Asia’s annual beer consumption was growing by 7-8 per cent each year.

In individual share price movements on the ASX this morning, resource stocks were mixed. At noon BHP Billiton was down 17 cents, Fortescue Metals added 74, Rio Tinto gained 41 cents, while Woodside Petroleum put on $1.79.

Banking stocks were the main drag on the market at midday. ANZ was down 37 cents, Commonwealth Bank lost 56, National Australia Bank slipped 94 cents and Westpac fell 72.

Other blue chips were also largely negative. AMP was down eight cents at noon, News Corp dropped 14, Telstra added a cent, while Woolworths fell 76.