The Australian share market closed the 2017 Financial Year on a sour note, after a day of investors cutting their losses and preparing for a fresh start on Monday. The local bourse fell like a lead balloon at the open and remained underwater for the rest of the session, closing the day 1.66 per cent lower. It was a sea of red across all sectors today but REITs fared the worst followed by Health Care and Consumer Discretionaries.
At the closing bell the S&P/ASX 200 index closed 97 points down to finish at 5,722.
The value of trades was $8.4 billion on volume of 1 billion shares at the close of trade. The top three stocks by value were Commonwealth Bank of Australia
(ASX:CBA), Westpac Banking Corporation
(ASX:WBC) and CSL Limited
(ASX:CSL).
On the futures market the SPI is 95 points lower.
Asian marketsTaking a look at how Asian markets are tracking in afternoon trade. The Nikkei is 1.08 per cent lower, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is 0.66 per cent lower and the Shanghai Composite is 0.06 per cent higher.
US marketsLooking at Wall Street, US major indexes have fallen over the four trading days this week: The Dow Jones Industrial Average has lost 0.51 per cent. The S&P 500 Index has lost 0.77 per cent. The NASDAQ has lost 1.97 per cent. The 100 Index has lost 2.66 per cent.
Company newsWebjet Limited
(ASX:WEB) has announced it has sold its remaining interest in Webjet Marketing North America. The change will also see a branding transition in North America to Flyus.com over a 12 month period. As such, Webjet will reacquire all rights associated with the Webjet name, logo and domain names for the US, Canada and Mexico. Shares in Webjet closed 2.76 per cent lower at $12.35.
Ardent Leisure Limited
(ASX:AAD) has appointed Mr Geoff Richardson as its interim Chief Financial Officer, with effect from 3 July 2017.
Energy Resources of Australia
(ASX:ERA) has appointed Paul Arnold as Chief Executive and Managing Director, with effect from 2 August 2017.
Eden Innovations Limited
(ASX:EDE) has advised that its EdenCrete product, will be used in all State funded concrete road repair projects in Georgia USA over the next 12 months.
Best and worst performersThe sector with the least losses was Consumer Staples losing 1.02 per cent to close at 9,107. The worst performing sector was REITs, losing 2.96 per cent to close at 1,311 points.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Mineral Resources
(ASX:MIN), rising 8.5 per cent to close at $10.85. Shares in Metcash
(ASX:MTS) and MYOB
(ASX:MYO) also closed higher.
The worst performing stock was Fairfax Media
(ASX:FXJ), dropping 8.33 per cent to close at $1.10. Shares in BT Investment
(ASX:BTM) and Growthpoint Properties
(ASX:GOZ) also closed lower.
IPOsAudinate Group
(ASX:AD8) started trading today. The networking technologies company floated at $1.22, opened at $1.50 and closed at $1.50.
Commodities and the dollarGold is trading at $US1,245 an ounce.
Light crude is $0.13 higher at $US44.87 a barrel.
The Australian dollar is buying $US0.7691.
