On Monday, the Australian share-market managed to close lower, mainly on the back of a weak lead from market across US on Friday, ahead of a public holiday in the country which managed to pull down values overnight.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index, at the Monday close which happened at about 16:15 AEDT, had slipped by 16.6 points, or 0.36%, to 4,545.5 points, and the broader All Ordinaries, on the other hand, had declined by 18.4 points, or 0.4%, to 4,570.4 points.

On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the March share price index futures contract managed to be off by 16 whole points, at 4,518 points, and as per preliminary calculations, the volume was 8,101 contracts.

"There's a bit of nervousness ahead of this meeting of the EU (European Union) tonight where it's expected they will come up with some further rhetoric about the Greece and Portugal (debt) situation. We also have the fact that US markets will be on holiday for Presidents Day as well, so the (Australian) market's pretty defensively postured, with a lot of selling amongst cyclical (cyclical stocks)", said IG Markets market analyst Ben Potter shared.