Australian shares fell more than 2% on Tuesday, in line with a slump in global stocks as concerns about rising interest rates and fears of further COVID-19 restrictions in China triggered a broad-based sell-off.
The S&P/ASX 200 index was down 2.4% at 7,297.30, as of 0043 GMT, hitting a five-week low and marking its biggest intraday drop since Feb. 24.
The benchmark fell 1.6% on Friday. Fears over prolonged COVID lockdowns in Shanghai and potential curbs in Beijing after the city’s biggest district began mass testing spooked investors already worried about a slowdown in top commodities consumer China and aggressive global interest rate hikes.
Australian miners led the decline on the domestic bourse, slumping as much as 5.7% in their biggest intraday drop in nearly two years, as iron ore dropped to a more than one-month low and industrial metals tumbled.
Sector majors BHP Group, Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals Group slid between 4.2% and 6.6%. South32 Ltd slumped 6.8% even after posting a jump in quarterly metallurgical coal output.
Energy stocks recorded their worst intraday drop since June 2020, declining 5.1%, as crude oil prices hit their lowest in two weeks.
Miners, financials lift Australian shares higher
Sector heavyweight Woodside Petroleum was down 6.2% even after reporting a more than twofold jump in quarterly revenue.
Gold stocks and financials fell 2.9% and 1.3%, respectively. Meanwhile, payment solution provider EML Payments sank as much as 32.7% to become the biggest loser on the benchmark index after it slashed its EBITDA guidance for FY22 by about 8%.
New Zealand’s benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index fell 0.7% to 11,830.97.
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