Just why the big fall yesterday came as a surprise to some in the market and the business media is a surprise.
After all the overnight futures market on Friday had closed with a 50 point loss for the ASX 200 on the cards, and the market started lower (to breathless reporting on some blogs) and ended down 69 points.
Friday’s big falls in Europe in the US – some almost 2%, a couple more than that should have told local investors it was going to be a miserable day – which it was with more than $20 billion off the market value (it was over $22 billion at one stage as the ASX fell more than 70 points.
Markets in Asia followed – the Nikkei in Tokyo fell more than 3%, Shanghai almost 2% and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong 2%.
The ASX 200 ended at 6126.2 after hitting a low of 6,113 in the early afternoon. Just 38 companies ended the day higher while 160 fell.
Banks and big miners fell, as did tech stocks and energy shares.
The Australian 10-year bond yield fell to 1.78% according to Bloomberg data, only 28 points above the cash rate of 1.50%.
Yields on the two-year bond fell further under the cash rate – 1.46% and five-year bonds saw the yield dip to 1.45% as the partial inversion in the yield curve deepened here with investors punting on a rate cut sooner than later.
ANZ fell 2.3% lower at $25.92, Westpac slid 1.5% to $26.12, the Commonwealth lost 0.9% to $70.78 and NAB eased by the same amount to end at $24.87.
BHP Group shares lost 1.3% lower to $37.13, Rio Tinto fell 1.1% to $93.13, South32 dropped 2.8% to $3.76 and Fortescue Metals eased 1.2% to $6.51.
Energy stocks fell as global oil prices continued to ease. Woodside Petroleum fell 2.8% to $34.79, Origin Energy fell 4.5% to $7.22, Santos lost 3.8% to $6.92, Oil Search was down 3.3% at $8.00 and Beach Energy slumped 5.6% to $2.03.
Tech stocks also fell, trimming their strong year-to-date performances. Altium slumped 8.4% to end at $32.07, Appen fell 5.6% to $22.11, Wisetech Global slid 4.5% to $22.28 and Afterpay Touch shares dropped 5.3% to close at $19.55.
And there were some reminders of last week’s wrecks.
Eclipx Group lost another 12% yesterday on top of the 60% slump last week to end at 65 cents and New Hope Coal continue its rout falling 6.8% to $3.03 after last week’s 14% plus slide.
Gold miners did well as the price edged higher. Newcrest Mining rose 3.2% to $26.20, Saracen Mineral was up 2.5% to $2.83 and Resolute Mining closed at $1, up 2.1%.
