Australia Market tumbles on US interest rate worries

The Australian share market finished session steep lower on Monday, 21 June 2021, on the prospect of a less accommodative U.S. monetary policy after St. Louis Fed President James Bullard statement pointed to the possibility of interest rates raise sooner than indicated in the central bank's comments days before.

At closing bell, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 stumbled 133.54 points, or 1.81%, to 7,235.31. The broader All Ordinaries retreated 139.11 points, or 1.82%, to 7,485.19.

Total 7 of 11 sectors ended lower along with the S&P/ASX 200 Index. Information Technology was the best performing sector, gaining 6.3%, followed by healthcare (up 3.6%) and consumer discretionary (up 2.8%) sectors. Material was worst performing sector, falling 5.9%, followed energy (down 4.1%), utilities (down 2%), and financial (down 1.4%) sectors.

The best performing stocks in the S&P/ASX200 were Afterpay (up 2.5%), Megaport (up 2.3%), Altium (up 2.1%), Metcash (up 2%), and Ramsay healthcare (up 1.5%), while the worst performing stocks were Codan (down 11.8%), Chalice Mining (down 7.8%), NRW Holdings (down 7%), AMP (down 6%), and GUD Holdings (down 5.9%).

Materials and resources were lower, with Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals Group down around 2.7% each as copper and iron ore prices retreated.

Energy stocks such as Woodside Petroleum, Santos, Origin Energy and Oil Search dropped 1-3%. Boral gained 1.3% on news the company would sell its North American building products business for $2.15 billion.

Shares of banks and financials were also lower, with Commonwealth Bank of Australia falling 5% after announcing the long-anticipated sale of its Australian general insurance business for about A$625 million.

ECONOMIC NEWS: Australia total value of retail sales was up a seasonally adjusted 0.1% on month in May, coming in at A$31.069 billion, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Monday, following the 1.1% increase in April. On a yearly basis, retail trade was up 7.4% after surging 25.0% in April.

CURRENCY NEWS: The Australian dollar fell to its lowest since The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.749, still struggling to recover after its fall last week from above $0.768.

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