The Australian dollar opened almost a cent lower on Wednesday after losing ground against the US dollar following weak demand at a US bond auction and a credit rating downgrade for Portugal.

The Australian dollar opened higher after the passage of health reform in the US boosted risk appetite and distracted investors from the Greek financial crisis.

As open source platforms become more popular, they find their way into less usual areas than before.

The major indices spent almost the entire session in negative territory and closed better than lows hit in the final hour of trade amid the quarterly expiration of futures and options contracts, known as the "quadruple-witching" hour.

A new iPhone application has brought the financial index to a sexy new level. Sportswear company, Puma, has created an entertaining application called ‘The Puma’. It tracks global stocks, mirroring the increase and decrease of market shares in the amount of clothes a model is wearing.