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Highlights
- ASX 200 finished today’s session down 1.2% or 84.90 points to 7.120,
- The index was dragged lower by real estate, technology, and materials sectors.
- Rate worries, continued supply-side pressures, and a tightening lockdown in Shanghai stoked concerns about global economic growth and recession.
Share markets are presently being driven by global economic uncertainty – be it the prospect of rising rates or worries about China’s lockdowns. Evolving patterns around these are making investors jittery and provoking them to revisit their investment portfolios.
Today, the local market reacted to prolonged lockdowns in China, Federal Reserve’s recent rate hikes, along with a stronger dollar that hit demand for the risk-sensitive asset. Additionally, the election fever in Australia continue to hover.
How did ASX 200 perform?
The ASX 200 had a slow start to the week, beginning the day with a drop of 0.9%. It then widened its losses throughout the morning to sit 1.4% lower at noon. Miners BHP (ASX:BHP), Fortescue Metals Group (ASX:FMG) and Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) all posted losses, catalysed by weakness in the iron ore price.
Eventually, the ASX 200 finished today’s session down 1.2% or 84.90 points to 7.120.6, setting a new 20-day low. The local market is down 6.2% year to date. Over the last five days, the index has lost 3.08% and 0.56% over the last 52 weeks.
On the sectoral front, eight of 11 sectors were lower. Energy was the best performing sector, gaining +0.53% and +1.01% for the past five days.
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Who gained? Who lost?
The top performer today was Polynovo Limited (ASX:PNV), up 3%. It was followed by Westpac Banking (ASX:WBC). In 1H22, the bank cut costs faster than it lost revenue and maintained its cost target of AU$8 billion amid a contraction in interest margin. It delivered AU$3.1 billion in first-half cash earnings, lifting its dividend slightly.
Next up was Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC), up over 2%. Other gainers of the day were TPG Telecom (ASX:TPG) and Janus Henderson (ASX:JHG).
On the other side, in the red zone of the ASX 200, Novonix (ASX:NVX) was the biggest laggard, its stock down over 12%. Other stocks in this zone were Imugene (ASX:IMU), Chalice Mining (ASX:CHN), News Corporation (ASX:NWS) and Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR).
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Asian and global market
Asian markets got off to a shaky start to the week. The sentiment was propelled by US stock futures that took an early skid on rate worries. Additionally, the lockdown in Shanghai stoked concerns about global economic growth and possible recession.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.3%, and Japan's Nikkei tumbled 2.4%. South Korea’s Kospi index fell 0.8%, and China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.2%. Indian shares were lower.
On Friday, the S&P 500 dropped 23.53 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 98.60 points, and the Nasdaq lost 173.03 points.
Investors are also tense ahead of the U.S. consumer price report due on Wednesday.
