By Pauline Askin and Charlotte Greenfield
SYDNEY/WELLINGTON, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Australian shares eased on Wednesday, taking a breather after a solid rally in the previous session in the absence of fresh drivers.
The S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO slipped 12.4 points to 5,253.7 by 0151 GMT. The benchmark jumped nearly 2 percent on Tuesday.
"If you drill down into this market today the drop of half a percent this morning is coming more in these mid-cap stocks. The one they've really decided to take the axe to is Spotless ...it's down 40 percent at this stage," said James McGlew, executive director of corporate stockbroking at Argonaut. "The market needs to put on about 130 odd points to break even for the year which means we've gone absolutely nowhere."
Cleaning and catering company Spotless Group SPO.AX fell 37.5 percent.
Electronics retailer Dick Smith DSH.AX jumped as much as 24.9 percent on news a Woolworths Ltd senior executive was to take a senior role at Dick Smith. The electronics retailer sank to its lowest on record on Monday. fund, which provides investor exposure to the farmer-owned dairy exporter, rose 0.91 percent after a rebound in dairy prices at the global dairy auction.