A sharp rally in Commonwealth Bank shares helped offset broad losses across the Australian sharemarket and a brutal session on Wall Street triggered by US President Donald Trump’s criticism of the Federal Reserve.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index finished down just 2.4 points, a less than 0.1 per cent fall, to 7816.7 points at the closing bell, while the All Ordinaries was down 8.2 points. Nine out of the 11 sectors were in the red with technology posting the largest losses.

The sharemarket initially tracked heavy losses on Wall Street after all three US equity indexes, bonds and the US dollar plunged after Trump pushed for “lower interest rates now” and called chairman Jerome Powell a “loser” which analysts said undermined the central bank’s independence.

Bank appeal

But it was a 4.2 per cent advance from index heavyweight Commonwealth Bank that buoyed the ASX 200 even as most sectors recorded losses. Australia’s largest bank finished at a record share price of $168 apiece.

The other major banks had a more lacklustre session, with Westpac up 0.1 per cent to $31.18, National Australia Bank down 0.5 per cent to $33.83 and ANZ off 0.6 per cent to $27.86.

JPMorgan market strategist Kerry Craig said the Australian lenders were appealing to investors amid wider turmoil in equity markets – and in spite of lofty valuations in the sector.

“Investors are still looking for something relatively defensive. Banks are high-income players and those are what you want to be looking for in your portfolio at the moment,” he said.

Elsewhere within the sector, Macquarie added 0.6 per cent to $180.83 after announcing the sale of its entire North American and European public asset management business to Japan’s Nomura for $2.8 billion. The division oversees $285 billion in assets.

Gold stocks also buoyed the local sharemarket after spot prices of the precious metal surged above $US3500 an ounce amid the broader geopolitical uncertainty. West African Resources added 6.6 per cent to $2.58, Evolution Mining rose 4.9 per cent to $8.87 and Regis Resources jumped 3.8 per cent to $4.90.

Those gains tussled with losses from technology stocks and data centre play Goodman Group, which dropped 1.6 per cent to $27.68. Among the major technology stocks, software giant WiseTech retreated 2.4 per cent to $80.03 and NextDC slumped 6.2 per cent to $10.48.

Stocks on the move

In corporate news, Deep Yellow sank 8.2 per cent to 83¢ after delaying work on its flagship Namibian mine owing to lacklustre uranium market prices.

Bellevue Gold tumbled 7.1 per cent to 91¢ despite telling investors it had closed out its near-term hedge contracts that had been agreed for an average price far below current spot prices.

And, AMP lifted 0.4 per cent to $1.15 after Citi upgraded the bank and super provider to buy. Analysts said the stock was attractive at current valuations and argued “a lot is priced in” to the price.