The Australian sharemarket is now in negative territory for the year after slumping to another nasty loss yesterday for the second day in a row.
Weak tech and financials dragged the market lower, as did softer commodity stocks (but not BHP). That was despite a steadier day on the Chinese stock markets after Monday’s 4% fall.
While the Tokyo Nikkei index lost 1.3% which was catch up after the Japanese market was closed on Monday for a holiday, the Shanghai market ended around 0.37% higher – a long way from regaining Monday’s 3.7% slide.
Other markets in China ended in similar fashion. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.11% for the sixth day of falls.
That steadier trend was ignored here as the ASX 200 fell 0.7% or 59.2% to 6,041. That was after Monday’s 85 point or 1.4% fall.
The two-day fall has pushed the Australian market into negative territory for the year so far – the ASX 200 is 0.40% lower than at the start of the year.
Even though US bond markets were closed Monday for a holiday, trading still took place on electronic platforms and yield on the key 10-year bond was trading around 3.257% last night, a seven-year high.
So-called growth (mostly tech skewing) stocks took the brunt of the fall here, along with banks.
CSL fell 4.5% to $188.21, hitting a four-month low, Cochlear closed 5.2% lower at $191.88, on news of a new rival for its key hearing aid product in the US.
ResMed fell 2.3% to $15.12, Sonic Healthcare lost 1.9% to $24.68 and Ramsay Healthcare closed at $54.17, down 2.8% after it’s French arm lifted its offer for a Swedish healthcare and hospitals provider.
Appen was among the index’s worst performers on Tuesday, falling 5.3% to $12.50, Afterpay Touch closed 4.5% lower at $15.97, Xero dropped 4.9% to $46.43 and Wisetech Global closed at $18.60, down 5.4%.
MYOB shares ended unchanged at $3.55, holding on to Monday’s bid driven gain of more than 19%.
Shares in Nufarm fell 2.3% to a new 2018 low of $5.76 before closing at $5.79, a record closing low for the year as well. AMP shares hit a year’slow of $3.01 before closing at $3.05.
Chinese consumer-facing stocks also traded lower – A2 Milk shares fell 3.1% to $9.31, Treasury Wine shares lost 2.1% to $17.00 and Bellamy’s Australia slid 6.3% to $8.40.
Commonwealth Bank shares lost 0.9% to $68.75 (See separate story). NAB fell 1% to $26.61, and Westpac and ANZ shares lost 0.6% to $26.97 and $26.83 respectively.
Local mining stocks also weakened, gold lost 1.3%. Newcrest Mining fell 0.8% to $19.45 and Saracen Minerals closed 2.5% lower at $1.96. Resolute Mining fell to its lowest level this year, closing at $1.00, down 5.7%.
BHP shares though went against the trend, rising 0.38% to $34.63. But Rio shares eased 5 cents to $78.71 and shares in OZ Minerals were down 0.1% at $9.05.
