The Australian share market erased four days of uptrend, taking the local bourse back to last Tuesday’s level. It comes as Wall Street was sold off overnight with tech stocks leading the decline after Apple shares lost 5 per cent after the business that makes iPhone's face-recognition, cut its outlook. On top of that, US economic worries linger and the US dollar hit a 16-month high.
Locally, health and tech stocks lost the most, 2.6 per cent, with Financial, Materials and Energy losing about 2 per cent. Not helping in the cause for those major sectors, Westpac
(ASX:WBC) erased about a month’s of gains falling 5.4 per cent, and we also saw iron ore and oil lose footing.
At the closing bell the S&P/ASX 200 index closed 1.8 per cent lower or 107 points lower, at 5,834.
Futures market Dow futures are suggesting a rise of 107 points.
S&P 500 futures are eyeing a rise of 14 points.
The Nasdaq futures are eyeing lift of 33 points.
And the ASX200 futures are eyeing a 20 point rise tomorrow morning
Economic newsBusiness confidence fell from its previous level, disappointing the market and economist.
Personal finance commitments fell 0.3 per cent, while housing finance for homes fell 1.2 per cent and commercial finance rose 1.9 per cent from August to September, according to the ABS (in trend terms).
Company news Lithium producer, Orocobre
(ASX:ORE) reiterated its production for FY19 will be higher than FY18, while both of its projects will be commissioned in the second half of the 2020 calendar year. Its shares are trading near a-month high and today it saw a ramp up in buying, with its shares gaining 3.5 per cent to $4.68.
Citi issued an alert to the market saying NEXTDC’s
(ASX:NXT) contracted commitments are the rise, with its Sydney 2 project already approaching 50 per cent contracted commitments, and that’s even before opening. It comes as the data centre operator, NEXTDC inked a deal with Superloop
(ASX:SLC) to provide connectivity to the new INDIGO subsea cable system for both the NEXTDC data centres in Perth (P1 and P2) and Sydney (S1 and S2). NEXTDC held its 8th AGM today. Its share fell about 5 per cent.
Suncorp
(ASX:SUN) has announced it’s pushed out the sale date of its Australian life insurance business from 4 September to 28 February 2019, on the back of delay in regulatory approvals. Its share fell 2 per cent.
Fertiliser, explosives chemical and mining service company, Incitec Pivot
(ASX:IPL) has announced net profit (NPAT) fell 35 per cent to $207.9 million, for the year ending 30 September 2018, while its revenue rose 11 per cent to $3.9 billion. It lost 5.2 per cent.
Hearing device company, Cochlear,
(ASX:COH) has invested $21 million in Nyxoah, medical device company focused on the development and commercialisation of hypoglossal nerve therapy for the treatment of obstructive sleep Apnoea. Its shares fell over 4 per cent.
Best and worst performers of the dayThe best performing sector was Utilities adding 0.5 per cent while the worst performing sector was Health Care, shedding 2.2 per cent.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Orocobre
(ASX:ORE), rising 3.5 per cent to close at $4.65. Shares in Mayne Pharma Group
(ASX:MYX) and Corporate Travel Management
(ASX:CTD) followed higher.
The worst performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Elders
(ASX:ELD), dropping 13.2 per cent to close at $7.70. Shares in Afterpay Touch Group
(ASX:APT) and Westpac Banking Corporation
(ASX:WBC) followed lower.
Asian marketsMixed: Japan’s Nikkei has lost 2.2 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has lost 0.1 per cent and the Shanghai Composite has gained 0.1 per cent.
Commodities and the dollar Gold is trading at $1,205 an ounce.
Iron ore price fell 1.5 per cent US$76.05 and its futures are pointing to a fall of 0.8 per cent.
Light crude is US$1.37 lost at US$58.99 barrel.
One Australian dollar is buying 72.15 US cents.
CryptocurrenciesBitcoin has shed 0.5 per cent to US$6,385, Ethereum has lost 0.9 per cent to US$210 and Bitcoin Cash has lost 1.3 per cent to US$513, in the last 24 hours.
