Australia Market tumbles 0.76%; Energy, tech leads retreat

Australia stock market finished session lower on Friday, 10 February 2023 extending the losses in the previous session, on tracking negative lead from Wall Street overnight, RBA's upward revision to its near-term underlying inflation forecasts, and nagging fears about global economic growth.

Almost all ASX sectors declined, led by technology and energy stocks as well as coal and gold mining stocks.

At closing bell, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 56.67 points, or 0.76%, to 7,433.66. The broader All Ordinaries index fell 64.64 points, or 0.84%, to 7,631.13. For the week, the index lost 1.65%.

Total 10 of 11 sectors ended lower along with the S&P/ASX 200 Index. Information technology was worst performing sector, erasing 2.04%, followed by energy (down 1.68%), telecommunication services (down 1.65%), and utilities (down 1.14%) sectors.

The top performing stocks in S&P/ASX200 index were IMUGENE and UNITED MALT GROUP, up 7.4% and 4.79% respectively. The bottom performing stocks in S&P/ASX200 index were NEW HOPE CORPORATION and NEWS CORPORATION, down 8.61% and 6.88% respectively.

Market sentiments also dampened after the Reserve Bank of Australia revised its forecasts for core inflation and wages growth and warned further increases in interest rates would be needed to head off a damaging wage-price spiral. The RBA is forecasting inflation will be 6.25% in June and 4.75% in December, before being at the top of its target band of 3% by June 2025.

Federal Reserve officials said on Wednesday more interest rate rises were on the cards as the U.S. central bank presses forward with its efforts to cool inflation.

Shares of energy sector were lower after oil prices fell. Sector heavyweights Woodside and Santos slipped 0.2% and 0.4%, respectively. New Hope share price slid 8.6% amid a sharp retrace in the coal price since Tuesday. Yancoal fell 5.9% and Whitehaven slipped 3.8%.

Gold miners slumped after bullion prices fell overnight on fears of more interest rate hikes. Sector major Newcrest Mining and Northern Star Resources fell between 0.7% and 1%.

Financials fell, with all the "big four" banks trading in negative territory. Property services group REA shed 2.6% after it reported a 9% fall in national residential new listings in January as interest rates continued to depress consumer sentiment and property prices.

CURRENCY NEWS: The Australian dollar was stood at 0.6959 against greenback on Thursday, up by 0.51% from previous trading day closure at 0.6924 after trading in the range of 0.6922-0.6965.

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