Global woes flow to ASX, gold rallies: Aus shares 2% lower at noon

Market Reports

by Jessica Amir

The Australia shares market has taken a hit of about 2 per cent, losing a year’s worth of gains, with all our sectors trading lower, taking the local bourse back to where it was on early October 2017.

The S&P/ASX 200 index is 118 points or 2.03 per cent lower at 5,711 points at noon. On the futures market the SPI is 21 points lower.

We are seeing most of the sectors fall of over 2 per cent with negative sentiment from Wall Street-rattling local investors after the S&P500 lost over 3 per cent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost over 4.4 per cent on macroeconomic worry.

We are however seeing pockets of light with gold stocks mustering up, while some stocks are hitting new multi-year lows, like AMP (ASX:AMP) which announced falls in AMP Capital cash flows, and also the sale of its life and wealth protection businesses for $3.45 billion.

Broker moves

Harvey Norman (ASX:HVN) had their sell position reiterated by Goldman Sachs and the stock has seen some selling today and it’s hit a multiyear low, that it last hit on 17 December 2014. It’s trading 3.75 per cent lower at $3.21 at noon. 

Company news

Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC) advised the market of its Winchester South Project’s coal resources, which total 530 million tonnes. The project in the central Bowen Basin, which is one of the world’s major coal provinces, 200 kilometres south-west of Mackay. The announcement comes after Whitehaven Coal engaged with Xenith Consulting to determine the coal resource estimates. The coal major purchased 75 per cent of the project from Rio (ASX:RIO) in March and 25 from Scentre Group (ASX:SCG). Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC) has been on a long-term upward trend since 2016, trading 4.1 per cent lower at $5.00 at noon.

Waste management major, Cleanaway Waste Management (ASX:CWY) says it’s trading in line with expectations, is expecting continued growth in its platform and that the purchase of Tox Free Solutions (ASX:TOX) which completed in mid-May, is tracking as planned. These are some of the announcements the Chairman made at today’s AGM. Its outlook remains the same. Shares in Cleanaway Waste Management Limited (ASX:CWY) are trading 4.2 per cent higher at $1.76 at noon.

Best and worst performers

The sector with the least losses is S&P/ASX Real Estate Investment Trusts losing 0.9 per cent, while the worst performing sector is S&P/ASX Telco Services, shedding 2.4 per cent.

The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is Cleanaway Waste Management Limited (ASX:CWY), rising 4.2 per cent to $1.76, followed by shares in Lynas Corporation Limited (ASX:LYC) and St Barbara Limited (ASX:SBM).

The worst performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is AMP Limited (ASX:AMP), dropping 8.9 per cent to $3.02, followed by shares in Bellamy's Australia Limited (ASX:BAL) and Super Retail Group Limited (ASX:SUL).

Commodities and the dollar

Gold is trading at US$1,236 an ounce.
Iron ore price rose 0.6 per cent to US$74.73 and its futures are pointing to a rise of 1.3 per cent.
One Australian dollar is buying 70.70 US cents.

Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin has gained 0.3 per cent to US$6,490, Ethereum has fallen about 0.3 per cent to US$204 and EOS has shed about 0.8 per cent to US$5.37.
 

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