Welcome to your five-minute recap of the trading day,and how the experts saw it.
The numbers:The ASX 200 lost its early lead and closed 0.7 per cent weaker at 7,105 points on Thursday,with a broad sell-off ensuring every sector,aside from tech stocks,ended the day lower.
Consumer staples took the biggest hit with Woolworths liquor spin-off Endeavour dropping 6 per cent after a market briefing. Energy,mining and gold stocks also posted hefty losses,with Fortescue down 3.7 paper cent and Ashanti Gold dropping 4.8 per cent.
The lifters:Appen 29%,ALS 6.1%,Tyro Payments 5%
The laggards: Endeavour -6%,Nanosonics -5.7%,Tabcorp -5.4%
The lowdown:Local news finally made a dent on the ASX 200,which was in the black until the release of weaker than expected construction and capital spending data.
UBS downgraded its GDP forecast to 1 per cent quarter-on-quarter from 1.3 per cent,“but still with material downside risk from net exports (which are due next Tuesday),” it said.
Adding to the gloom were downbeat remarks on China’s economy by Premier Li Keqiang and no signs of concrete measures to address it. Wall Street futures were also trading lower.
Macquarie Equities is also worried that the current market dynamics for iron ore are unsustainable.
“China is overproducing hot metal and underlying demand needs to get better,a lot better,for mills to sustain current production levels,” Macquarie said.