Australia Market falls 1.4%

Headline indices of the Australia market declined to near four-month lows on Monday, 08 October 2018, as risk aversion selloff triggered on tracking negative lead from Wall Street Friday and other Asian bourses today after the U.S. non-farm payrolls report showed weaker than expected job growth in September, while the unemployment rate fell more than expected. Meanwhile, selloff pressure intensified on escalating trade dispute between world two biggest economies. Most of ASX sectors fell, with shares in material and banks being notable losers due to weak metals and oil prices and as strong US job numbers pushed US Treasury yields higher. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index dropped 85.18 points, or 1.4%, at 6,100.30 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index declined 82.52 points, or 1.3%, to 6,218.60 points.

Equity markets around the world were under pressure last week after a steep sell-off in US Treasuries, prompted by hawkish comments from US Federal Reserve officials and data widely seen as bolstering the case of further US rate hikes.

Shares of materials and resources companies declined, due to falling copper and aluminium prices. Shares in giant BHP were down almost 2%, while Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals were losing more than 2% each. Meanwhile, Alumina fell 7.9% and was the biggest%age loser on the benchmark.

Shares of banks and financial players were down. National Australia Bank and Westpac were lower in a range of 1% to 2%. Commonwealth Bank declined 1% after announcing it would keep banking services running at Australia Post in an agreement worth A$22 million a year.

Shares of ANZ Banking fell almost 3% after the lender lagged an A$824 million hit to its full-year profit due to impairments and one-off expenses, more than half of it related to customer remediation. The lender, which will announce its results on October 31, said the A$421 million in post-tax remediation costs covers customers charged fees for no service, inappropriate financial advice and other issues uncovered from product reviews.

Bucking the trend, shares of MYOB Group surged almost 21% to its highest since Jan 11, after the cloud services provider received a proposal from private equity firm KKR & Co to buy the shares it does not already own in the company for about A$1.75 billion.

CURRENCY: Australian Dollar declined against greenback and other major currencies on Friday. The Australian dollar was quoted at $0.7050 on Monday, compared to $0.7081 on Friday. The Aussie was down by more than 3% in three weeks, and down 13% from January's three-year high of $0.8108.

OFFSHORE MARKET NEWS, US stock market closed down on Friday, as treasury yields extended a recent upward move following the release of the monthly jobs report, adding to recent concerns about the outlook for interest rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 180.43 points or 0.7% to 26,447.05, the Nasdaq tumbled 91.06 points or 1.2% to 7,788.45 and the S&P 500 fell 16.04 points or 0.6% to 2,885.57.

The major European markets ended down on Friday. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index tumbled by 1.4%, while the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index slumped by 1.1% and 1%, respectively.

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