Australia Market Wrap
Aussie resource stocks slam market into reverse
Finally local shares caught the sell-off fever, following large gains since November. Overnight falls on Wall Street and falling commodity prices left little direction for the market to go – but down.
Asian markets all reversed course with Hong Kong and Japanese markets down over three per cent respectively.
The S&P/ASX 200 closed down 85.4 points, or 2.3%, at 3694.3.
Miners – sold off amidst profit taking
Overnight falls in the price of oil and most commodity prices sent investors to the sell-side of their mining investments. Very few mining stocks increased in a reminder of the bad old days of 2008.
BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP)was down $1.85, or 5.67%, to $30.75, Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO)lost $2.01, or 4.28%, to $44.92, Fortescue Metals (ASX:FMG) fell 18 cents, or 7.9%, at $2.09 and Mirabela Nickel (ASX:MBN) was steady at $1.60.
Gold stocks were also sold down as gold retreated overnight. Lihir Gold (ASX:LGL) gave up 14 cents, or 5.36%, to $2.47 and Newcrest Mining (ASX:NCM) lost $1.44, or 4.85%, to $28.25.
Oil stocks were falling all day, Santos (ASX:STO) was down 49 cents, or 3.22%, to $14.72 and Woodside Petroleum (ASX:WPL) was $2.17, or 5.6%, to $36.60.
Banks down - but treated less harshly
Bank stocks were weaker as ANZ Bank (ASX:ANZ) lost 17 cents to $15.18, Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) was down 38 cents to $28.57, NAB (ASX:NAB) lost 13 cents to $20.76 and Westpac (ASX:WBC) fell 27 cents at $16.60. Macquarie Group (ASX:MQG) was hammered $1.93, or 5.72%, to $31.82 after warning of a tough fourth quarter.
Wesfarmers (ASX:WES) bucked the trend, up 25 cents at $25.87 and Harvey Norman (ASX:HVN) lost nine cents to $2.51.
The Australian dollar lost a lot of ground falling back to 70 US cents.
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23/06/09 Australian shares fall 3%
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