As the end of the financial year approaches, a familiar culprit lies behind the selling in some of the sharemarket’s biggest laggards: investors trying to lower their tax bill.

At around this time every year, investors start dumping underperforming stocks to crystallise losses, which can then be used to offset the capital gains made elsewhere. And with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index up about 8 per cent for the fiscal year, there’s an extra incentive to cash in.