Aussie market ends sharply lower on last trading day of financial year

Source: Xinhua| 2019-06-28 15:00:45|Editor: xuxin
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SYDNEY, June 28 (Xinhua) -- The Australian market has finished sharply lower on Friday, with energy stocks, info tech shares and the materials sector all weighing the index down on the final day of trade for the financial year.

At the close, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was down 47.50 points or 0.71 percent at 6,618.80, while the broader All Ordinaries index fell 43.80 points or 0.65 percent at 6,699.20.

"As has been the case for most of this week, the market has been cautious ahead of the G20 Summit, with trade talks weighing on the minds of investors," Commsec market analyst James Tao told investors in an afternoon report.

While today's action disappointed, Tao added that, "it is of course the last day of trading for the financial year, the month and the quarter as well and over those time periods we have seen a much more improved performance from the local market overall," he said.

In the financial space, Australia's big banks were mostly lower with the Commonwealth Bank down (0.27 percent), Westpac Bank up (0.78 percent), National Australia Bank down (0.11 percent) and ANZ down (0.60 percent).

Mining stocks pulled back after yesterday's strong gains with BHP down (1.88 percent), Rio Tinto down (2.35 percent), Fortescue Metals down (1.74 percent) and gold miner Newcrest down (0.13 percent).

The country's oil and gas producers also slumped with Woodside Petroleum down (2.13 percent), Santos down (1.67 percent) and Oil Search down (1.81 percent).

Australia's largest supermarket chains came under selling pressure with Wesfarmers down (1.18 percent) and Woolworths down (0.48 percent).

While telecommunications giant Telstra dipped (0.26 percent), the national carrier Qantas fell (0.19 percent) and biomedical firm CSL edged lower (0.09 percent).

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