ASX: $27 billion wiped off Australian share market
Updated
The ASX is having its worst day in seven months, with almost $27 billion being wiped off its total value.
This follows last week's vicious sell-off on Wall Street — as US government bond yields surged to a four-year high, and the prospect of faster-than-expected US rate hikes spooked investors.
The benchmark ASX 200 has fallen 1.5 per cent to 6,027 points (at 3:15pm AEDT).
As for the broader All Ordinaries index, it has also dropped by 1.6 per cent to 6,131.
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 energy (-3pc), materials (-2.5pc), consumer cyclicals (-2.4pc) and industrials (-2pc).
The worst-performing stock by far was Blackham Resources, which plunged by 80 per cent to 0.1 cents.
Wesfarmers dropped 4.8 per cent to $42.0, after the company wrote off $1.3 billion from its underpeforming Target and Bunnings UK stores.
The biggest drag on the market were the financials and materials sectors which, between them, make up 63 per cent of the ASX 200.
Financials fell by 1.6 per cent, weighed down by losses in the big four banks — Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, ANZ and NAB are all down by about 1.4 per cent each.
In the materials space, deep losses were sustained by mining giants BHP (-2.3pc) and Rio Tinto (-2.1pc).
Deep losses were also suffered by the big energy names, Santos (-3.7pc), Origin Energy (-1.9pc) and Woodside Petroleum (-2.5pc).
The weakest performers of the ASX 200 were mainly mining stocks like Syrah Resources (-8pc), Resolute Mining (-8pc) and Orocobre (-7pc).
The Australian dollar fell to 78.92 US cents when the local bourse opened sharply lower this morning.
However, it has since recovered to 79.3 US cents (at 3:15pm AEDT).
More to come.
First posted
