The ASX looks like starting lower today after a slide on Wall Street on Friday night triggered in part by a 4.1% slump in the price of Apple shares, which spread to other tech shares.
The ASX 200 futures market has the market opening down 15 points this morning after Friday’s 12 point drop in the physical market which trimmed the week’s gains back to 0.7%.
That was due to a strong week by the big miners.
Weakness in the banks and AMP hit the market hard as disclosure after disclosure of poor practices and rorts emerged from the first week of the second round of hearings of the banking and finance Royal Commission.
More are expected this week with NAB, ASIC ANZ and industry groups in the sights of the Commission.
AMP shares lost nearly 10% over the week, closing at $4.31, the lowest end to a week for well over 3 years.
Commonwealth Bank fell 1.6% to $72.02 after it was revealed it charged fees to dead clients. Westpac shares fell 1.2% to $28.54 after it was revealed the bank was responsible negligent financial planning.
NAB also fell, its shares ending the week at $28.31, down 0.7%. ANZ shares saw the smallest of gains – up 0.04%.
Fund manager, Perpetual told the market that its funds under management had dropped $2.6 billion in the March quarter and the shares followed suit, losing nearly 12% to end at $39.19.
Village Roadshow shares lost more than a quarter of their value (25.9%), falling to $2.37 week after it lowered its profit forecast and the outlook now is for losses for 2017-18.
Among the miners, South32 shares jumped almost 13%, supported by strong aluminium prices and a generally solid March quarter production report (and another surge in cash on hand).
Alumina also rose on the back of higher aluminium and alumina prices, up 9.3% for the week to close at $2.84.
Higher nickel prices saw Western Areas shares rise 11.1% and they ended at $3.71.
BHP shares rose 3.8% over the week to end at $30.86 and Rio Tinto shares were up 3% at $80.53. Both companies released solid March quarter production figures.
