As it happened: Heavyweights keep ASX subdued, tech stocks rise

“This week is all about payrolls and Presidential debates... but political malevolence and the torrent of global pandemic concerns continue to rattle on investors' nerves,” AxiCorp chief global market strategist Stephen Innes said in a note.

The local market fell by as much as 0.4 per cent at Monday’s open and flittered between positive and negative throughout the day.

Support came from tech stocks - in particular a 5.1 per cent rise for Afterpay - with Nearmap gaining 4.9 per cent and EML Payments adding 7 per cent.

Property trusts including Scentre, Stockland, GPT, Vicinity and Charter Hall all rose ahead of a slew of dividend payments, and hopes around the gradual easing of lockdowns.

Improving COVID-19 statistics across Victoria, NSW and QLD on Monday boosted a number of companies who have been hurt by the pandemic, including travel stocks such as Qantas, Flight Centre, Webjet.

In the end, the weight of material and financial giants proved too much, with iron ore heavies BHP and Rio joining the Big Four banks in the doldrums.

Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, NAB and ANZ each fell by between 0.8 per cent and 1.3 per cent, while Macquarie Group finished flat. Rio lost 1.5 per cent, BHP 1.3 per cent, and Fortescue Metals 0.3 per cent.

Burman portfolio manager Julia Lee said the decline across the financial sector was a clear rewind of Friday’s events, when the prospect of relaxed lending laws powered huge gains for the lenders.

“If the banks hadn’t rallied so hard on Friday than we’d probably be higher again with the rest of the region… but as it is we’ve finished pretty flat,” Ms Lee said.

She noted the big caps had done the damage on Monday.

“Strip out the banks and miners than our markets would be doing pretty well,” she said.

“The benchmark index is only telling only half the story - small and mid-cap sectors have risen strongly, including the tech sector and also property trusts.”

Biotech CSL shed its early gains to finish 0.6 per cent lower at $295.05. The company’s sector stablemates fared better, with Resmed and Sonic Health Care each up 0.5 per cent. Stem cell firm Mesoblast was the best performer on the ASX 200, finishing up 12 per cent at $5.50 ahead of this week’s call by the US Food and Drug Administration on the company’s flagship product.

Goldminer Newcrest climbed 1.3 per cent to $32, Northern Star rose 3.5 per cent to $14.09, and Evolution ended 1.9 per cent ahead at $5.93.

Dairy firm a2 Milk was a heavy loser, dropping 11.4 per cent to $15.20 and hitting a more-than six month low after warning daigou channel disruption would hurt first-half revenue.