ASX: Australian share market plunges 1.5pc after Wall Street sell-off
Updated
Australian shares tumbled sharply on Monday, following a broad sell-off which rocked Wall Street last week.
Within the first ten minutes of trade, the Australian stock market plunged 1.5 per cent.
Those losses have eased slightly since then, with the benchmark ASX 200 down 1.3 per cent to 6,045 (at 10:45 AEDT).
The broader All Ordinaries index dropped by 1.3 per cent to 6,147.
As an indication of how deep the sea of red is, 186 of the 200 companies in the benchmark index (93 per cent) have sunken into negative territory.
Which stocks were hit hardest?
Every sector on the ASX 200 has been impacted — with the worst performers being materials (2.1pc), consumer cyclicals (-2.1pc), energy (-1.9pc) and telecommunications (-1.7pc).
The biggest drag on the market was the financials sector, which make up 38 per cent of the benchmark ASX 200.
Financials fell by 1.1 per cent, weighed down by losses in the big four banks — Commonwealth Bank (-0.8pc), Westpac (-1pc), NAB (-1.1pc) and ANZ (-0.9pc).
The weakest performers of the ASX 200 were mainly mining stocks like Western Areas (-7.2pc), Independence Group (-5.5pc) and Galaxy Resources (-5pc).
But the worst performer in the entire Australian market was gold producer Blackham Resources, which saw its share price plummet 40 per cent.
The Australian dollar also slipped by 0.2 per cent to 79.04 US cents, following this negative stock market reaction.
More to come.
First posted
