The Australian share market closed at its lowest point since June today after US futures took a tumble.
The poor Wall Street leads exacerbated fears that the major tech correction has further to run after the Nasdaq shaved off another 117 points on Friday’s session.
Our benchmark ASX 200 index tried its best to keep its head above water over during the morning session but gave up at lunchtime. The index ended up closing 0.71 per cent lower at 5822.6 points.
Today, our market heavyweights joined forces to ensure that health care and energy’s best efforts were in vain.
Biotech giant CSL gained 0.22 per cent and Cochlear gained 0.39 per cent, while Sonic Healthcare outperformed and closed 2.65 per cent higher. The efforts propped the healthcare sector up by a slim 0.31 per cent.
Meanwhile, the energy sector closed 0.78 per cent up as Washington H. Soul Pattinson gained 2.49 per cent. WorleyParsons gained 1.85 per cent and Woodside gained 0.6 per cent, but Santos just missed out and closed 0.19 per cent lower.
Alas, our iron ore giants offset the gains and dragged the materials sector down. Rio Tinto slipped 1.16 per cent, BHP gave back 1.19 per cent, and Fortescue lost 1.16 per cent.
Not even the “safe haven” gold subsector could offer any respite. St Barbara tumbled a hefty 7.12 per cent and Saracen Mineral Holdings fell 5.17 per cent. Newcrest lost 2.1 per cent. In fact, our 10 biggest gold miners by market cap all closed red.
As for the other pillar of our market, things were not much better for the financials sector. Our big four banks set the tone for the day as NAB declined by 1.45 per cent. ANZ lost 1.29 per cent, Commonwealth Bank lost 1.35 per cent, and Westpac lost 1.44 per cent. Investment banker Macquarie Group lost 1.16 per cent.
Once more, the tech sector followed the Nasdaq’s lead today. Afterpay sunk 1.24 per cent, Xero 1.15 per cent, and WiseTech 1.72 per cent. Even NEXTDC, which has been comfortably outperforming its tech peers recently, lost 1.1 per cent today.
Taking a look at major Asian markets, only Japan’s Nikkei 225 is in the green this afternoon and up by 0.18 per cent. The Asia Dow is currently 0.42 per cent lower, with the Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite also trading lower by 1.58 per cent and 0.57 per cent, respectively.
The Aussie dollar is slightly stronger today, currently buying 73.13 US cents, 56.48 pence, and 76.28 Japanese Yen.
Today’s ups and downs
It was a happy day for tech specialist Vection Technologies (ASX:VR1) today. The company landed its first deal with an Italian hospital to trial its augmented reality (AR) tech in endoscopic surgery. The tech has applications both for training and in-practice use and is based on Vection’s FrameS technology. Vection was up as much as 35 per cent at a three-year high this morning. By market close, the gain was pared back to 16.18 per cent with shares worth 7.9 cents each — their highest close since October 2017.
Things were not as swell for Byron Energy (ASX:BYE), which told shareholders a major oil well in the Gulf of Mexico was a dud. After drilling the well for over 3400 metres, the company deemed it “non-commercial”. Byron CEO Maynard Smith said the company is disappointed with the result. Shares in Byron lost 33.33 per cent today to close worth 19 cents each.