SYDNEY: Australia’s benchmark stock index closed 4.23 percent lower on Monday, recording one of its worst trading days in more than a year as US tariffs and China’s reprisals roiled global markets.
A benchmark index of the country’s largest 200 listed companies sank to its lowest close since late 2023, extending losses first sparked last week by US President Donald Trump’s bombshell tariff announcement.
Around Aus$100 billion (US$60 billion) in value was wiped off the blue-chip ASX 200 by the close of trading on Monday afternoon. Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers said spiralling trade tensions had “crushed confidence in markets”.
Australian shares hit near 8-month low as Trump tariffs fuel recession fears
“When confidence craters, markets crash and that’s what we’ve seen as a result of the US administration’s self-defeating tariffs policy,” he said.
The United States slapped 10 percent tariffs on Australian goods as part of Trump’s sweeping plan.
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