Close Australian stocks ended the day slightly in the red, pulled down after China's consumer inflation spike stoked fears its government would move soon to further curb bank lending. At the close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 5.8 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 4814.2 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index lost 4.3 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 4825.5. Materials stocks were 0.2 per cent lower, financials fell 0.3 per cent and energy shares shed 0.3 per cent. Among retail stocks, Myer Holdings gave up early gains to end the day down 3 cents to $3.44 after it downgraded its full-year sales growth target. Investors grew uneasy after China's CPI came in higher than expected at 2.7 per cent. "The (Chinese) economy is clearly building steam," said CMC Markets analyst David Taylor. "The market now seems uneasy about further monetary tightening being implemented in an attempt to restrain inflation."

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