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As Melbourne gears up for another six weeks in lockdown, confidence was weak among investors and the Australian share market declined today to where it was a week ago.
A resurgence of COVID-19 cases in Victoria prompted Premier Dan Andrews to lock down some areas in the state and close the Victoria-New South Wales border. The lockdown begins at midnight tonight.
Aussie investors couldn’t even look to the US for comfort after a bleak night on Wall Street. While we slept, the S&P 500 gave up a five-day rally and declined 1.08 per cent. The Dow Jones lost 1.51 per cent.
As such, the outlook was bleak for the ASX 200. The index touched green before lunchtime following a feeble recovery attempt, but the win was short-lived and by market close, the ASX 200 was 1.54 per cent lower at 5920.3 points.
Health care stocks led the losses today as nine of its top 10 stocks by market cap closed in the red. Big player CSL lost 3.30 per cent, while Cochlear gave back 3.26 per cent. Pro Medicus suffered the heaviest blow with a 3.95 per cent fall, while Mesoblast managed to outperform and close 2.23 per cent higher.
The financials sector was weighed down by more losses among our big four. ANZ led the declines today with a 2.13 per cent fall, while NAB lost 1.96 per cent, Westpac 1.76 per cent, and Commonwealth Bank 0.95 per cent. Investment banker Macquarie Group lost 0.95 per cent.
The other pillar of our market, the materials sector, held on to another day of green until a late-afternoon decline. Nevertheless, our gold subsector still acted as a shield against the worst of the day’s losses, with Northern Star tacking on a healthy 6.46 per cent and Saracen rising 1.83 per cent. Evolution Mining gained 1.34 per cent while Newcrest kept things a bit more modest and closed 0.9 per cent higher.
As for our iron ore giants, BHP lost 0.97 per cent, Fortescue lost 0.88 per cent, and Rio Tinto lost 0.78 per cent.
Of course, with new lockdowns comes new panic buying, and in a repeat of the first wave of infections, supermarket stocks are having a field day. The consumer staples sector was the only sector to close green on the ASX today, led by a one per cent gain from Woolworths and a 2.42 per cent gain from Coles.
Asian markets repeated yesterday’s pattern, with the Shanghai Composite the only index sitting green when the ASX closed for the day. The Asia Dow is down by 0.52 per cent, Japan’s Nikkei 225 by 0.78 per cent, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng by 0.13 per cent.
The Australian dollar is down today, currently buying 69.3 US cents, 55.23 pence, 11.91 South African Rand.
Today’s ups and downs
Recently-listed buy now, pay later competitor Splitit (ASX:SPT) has reported record growth for the second quarter of the 2020 calendar year, touting impressive figures like a 260 per cent boost to sales, a 460 per cent boost to revenue and a doubling of total merchants compared to the quarter before. The company listed on the ASX in February 2019 and has since nearly tripled in value. Today, shares closed 8.42 per cent higher at $1.48.
Meanwhile, it was another tough day for those primed to suffer most from renewed lockdown measures. Corporate Travel Management (ASX:CTD) slumped 4.99 per cent, while Webjet (ASX:WEB) slipped another 4.24 per cent. Super Retail Group (ASX:SUL) lost 4.93 per cent, and Bingo Industries (ASX:BIN) declined by 5.98 per cent.
