The ASX has ended a month and a quarter full of unwelcome records – the largest monthly fall on record of 21.1% in March for the ASX 200 was probably the most obvious and the $450 billion in lost value in the quarter was another when the key index shed 24.1%.
There was the 7% surge in a day last week, and a couple of record one day falls as well over the month. But overall, March was the worst quarter since October 1987 and the Black Monday plunge.
The final day of March and the quarter was typical – the ASX 200 ended the day at 5076.8 points, a decline of 104.6 points, or 2%.
The slide in the afternoon came after the index peaked at 5366 points early in the day (up 3%), but selling pressure intensified in the afternoon as the market headed to the end of the quarter.
Over the quarter the index has fallen from 6,684 to 5,076. It peaked at a session high of 7,197 on February 20, to a session low of 4402.50 on March 23 (last Monday week).
Looking at Tuesday, the final day of the month and quarter see volatility continue to dominate with gains of 25.5% in shares in Credit Corp, 23.3% in EML Payments, and 19.3% jump for G8 Education.
Big falls included a drop of 12.4% in Resolute Mining and Aurizon Holdings and a 12% fall in the price of Unibail Rodamco Westfield.
Real estate out-performed with gains of 2.7% and the information technology sector was up 1%. Consumer staples and communications under-performed with declines of 5.9% and 4.3% respectively.
Telstra shares lost 18 cents, or 5.5%, to close at $3.07. CSL fell 5.1% to close at $296.68, and Woolworths shares dropped 8% to $35.10, Coles shares shed near 10% to $15.16 and Wesfarmers shares lost 4.5% to $34.27.
