Australia Market slips on Wall Street plunge

The Australian shares tumbled on Thursday, 24 September 2020, with major indexes diving deeply in red territory, on tracking the weakness in global markets, as risk aversion persisted on concern over a slowdown in global economic recovery.

At closing bell, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index dropped 47.98 points, or 0.81%, to 5,875.94. The broader All Ordinaries declined 54.79 points, or 0.9%, to 6,056.54.

The U.S. market tumble came as hopes for a recovery in the U.S. economy receded due to the lower-than-expected U.S. service sector purchasing managers index for September, released by British financial data provider IHS Markit. Investor sentiment was hurt by the U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell expressing concern over economic uncertainties amid the novel coronavirus crisis, and pointing to the need for a new stimulus package. Additionally, a survey showed that business growth in the Euro zone ground to a halt in September, throwing economic recovery into question, as fresh restrictions to quell resurgence in coronavirus infections slammed the services industry into reverse.

Nearly all sectors fell, as big banks, miners and oil stocks weighed on the market and technology stocks tracked Wall Street lower. Academic and educational service was the only sector to rise.

Westpac Banking Corp came off its lows to close just 0.1% lower after it said it would pay A$1.3 billion to settle a case filed by the country's financial crimes watchdog against the lender for breaching anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism laws.

Buy-now-pay-later firm Afterpay fell 5.8%, after Chief Fianancial Officer (CFO) Luke Bortoli said he will leave the company after three years in the role, to be replaced by Bravura Solutions former chief financial officer Rebecca Lowde.

CURRENCY NEWS: The Australian dollar was at $0.7046 after falling yesterday from above $0.712.

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