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After steeling themselves against a soft morning start and spending lunchtime in the green, Aussie shares ran out of steam this afternoon and closed red for the first time in five sessions.

The afternoon decline comes despite a strong surge in Asian indexes and the Chinese share market’s biggest one-day rally in over a year. When the ASX closed for the day, the Shanghai Composite was up a whopping 5.44 per cent at 3324.69 points — its highest point since February 2018 and a good 300 points above its pre-COVID 2020 high. Other Asian markets got swept up in the excitement and the Asia Dow was 1.59 per cent higher, the Nikkei 225 1.74 per cent higher, and the Hang Seng 3.34 per cent higher.

Nevertheless, Australian investors were distracted by the most COVID-19 infections ever recorded in one day in Victoria, two new COVID-19-related deaths, and the closure of the Victoria-NSW border from Wednesday. Our benchmark ASX 200, after sitting 0.3 per cent higher at one point, closed 0.71 per cent in the red at 6014.60 points.

Today, health care was the biggest drag of our 11 ASX sectors. Biotech giants CSL set the tone with a 2.24 per cent decline, while Cochlear lost 1.63 per cent. Fisher and Paykel Healthcare lost a marginal 0.03 per cent win, but Ramsay and Sonic lost 1.67 per cent and 0.64 per cent, respectively.

Our heavily-weighted materials sector anchored things further as BHP ended the day on a 1.68 per cent loss. Fortescue lost 0.71 per cent and Rio Tinto lost 0.98 per cent. Not even our safe-haven gold subsector could offset the declines despite Saracen’s 0.69 per cent rise. Newcrest lost 1.44 per cent, Northern Star 2.23 per cent, and Evolution 1.17 per cent.

Yet, despite the bleak day, buy now, pay later darling Afterpay championed the technology sector to yet another green close — its fifth out of the last six sessions. Afterpay closed 0.74 per cent higher, while Richard White’s WiseTech ignored the sad day and surged 448 per cent ahead. Xero lost 0.91 per cent and Computershare lost 0.15 per cent.

The financials sector almost escaped the red but just fell under as each of our big four weighed the sector down. Macquarie’s 1.48 per cent gain was not enough to offset Westpac’s 0.49 per cent loss and ANZ’s 0.36 per cent loss. NAB and Commonwealth each lost 0.21 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Aussie dollar is stronger today, currently worth 69.68 US cents, 55.75 pence, and 11.81 South African Rand.

Today’s ups and downs

It was a happy day for recently-listed biotech company Nyrada (ASX:NYR) after the company released some “exciting” preclinical data for its anti-cholesterol drug. The treatment was proven to be just as effective as conventional FDA-approved treatments but has the potential to be made into a pill. Given current treatment requires expensive, ongoing injections, Nyrada said the new drug could be a major competitor in the anti-cholesterol space. Shares closed 34.29 per cent higher, worth 24 cents each.

Things weren’t so great for Chase Mining (ASX:CML), however, after the company admitted it did not strike any visible gold from recent drilling at its Lorraine Mine prospect. While visible gold is usually a lot to ask for, it seems it was the least investors were expecting from the company, with Chase shares shaving off 23.53 per cent of their value and closing worth 2.6 cents each.

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