It will be another rough start to trading on the ASX today after Friday’s volatile day on Wall Street and more bad news about the health of the Chinese economy at the weekend.
That was after a volatile day on Friday which saw the ASX lose 179.5 points or 2.8% before European shares sold off – losing another 3.7% and the S&P 500 fall 1.7% after being down well over 2.5% at one stage.
The futures market saw ASX 200 futures fall 93 points or 1.5% pointing to another weak start to trade for the Australian share market on Monday.
Friday’s fall means the ASX 200 has now fallen 13.6% from its record high on February 20 and is down 7% from the start of the year.
After suffering the largest weekly decline since the GFC in the last week of February, the ASX 200 lost a further 3.5% in the first week of March.
National Australia Bank and Westpac both closed at their lowest level since 2012, down 5.5% and 4.0% respectively to $22.00 and $21.35.
CBA and Westpac shares fell 10.6% last week, The ANZ fell 10.8% and the NAB stood out with a 12.3% loss over the five days.
ANZ shed 4.7% to $22.14, hitting levels last seen in early 2016, while theCommonwealth Bank slumped 3.7% to $73.93 to close at a fresh 10-month low.
The declines coincided with Australian 10-year bond yields falling to 0.675%, the lowest level on record. The Aussie dollar ended the session at 66.58 US cents. It was up more than one US cent in a rare gain for a week this year.
Consumer stocks were also hit hard by the fall in retail sales in January (see separate story) while the fall in December worsened on revision.
The consumer discretionary sector slumped 3.7%, led by 7 percent-plus falls for Flight Centre and G8 Education,
Shares in department store operator Myer (which reported an unconvincing interim result last Thursday) collapsed, falling 16.7% to 27.5 cents, their lowest level on record.
The industrials and information technology sectors also slid over 3%, with shares in Qantas down 8.1% on the day and more than 15% for the week and over 34% for the year to date.
Shares in tech darlings, Xero and Afterpay Touch, lost 5.5% and 4.2% on Friday. Xero shares through rose 2.06% last week but that still left them off 6% for the year while Afterpay shares dipped 0.6% last week to be still up 12% for the year so far.
