Benchmark ASX 200 falls 0.56 per cent on final trading day of the week

Aussie equities fell on Friday, as iron ore dragged and investors grappled with hotter-than-expected US inflation data.

The Australian sharemarket fell on Friday on the back of an iron ore slump and a Wall Street fall fuelled by hotter-than-expected inflation figures.

The benchmark ASX 200 slipped 0.56 per cent, or 43.30 points, to end the day at 7670.30, while the broader All Ordinaries index fell 0.6 per cent to end at 7926.2.

Australia’s technology stocks fell a sharper 1.17 per cent, or 36.3 points, to close out the week at 3057.5.

The bourse had slumped 1.6 per cent in intraday trading but trimmed its losses throughout the afternoon.

Wall Street fell overnight after hotter-than-expected producer prices fuelled fears the US Federal Reserve might delay or trim expected rate cuts in 2024.

“There is just broad weakness in equity markets today going into next week’s central bank meetings,” Kyle Rodda, senior financial market analyst at capital.com, said on Friday.

Australia’s technology stocks fell 1.17 per cent. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

“Some strong inflation data combined with some pretty strong labour market reports over the last month and some other economic statistics suggest the US economy is fairly resilient, there is a concern that maybe the Fed might back away from projecting the number of cuts in the year ahead that it did back in December, when it released its last statement of economic projections.

“So it is effectively a little bit of risk-off going into this event on the fear that maybe the Fed will guide for fewer interest rate cuts than before.”

Fears of slowing growth in China also propelled Friday’s sell-off.

“We’ve seen some pretty broad weakness in commodity prices overall, but the iron ore miners have been a pretty significant weight all week,” Mr Rodda said.

“There has been a bit of a sell-off in iron ore since the National People’s Congress in China.

“The general perception is that they provided a fairly robust growth target, but not enough substance, or didn’t announce enough substantial measures to fill the markets with confidence they can achieve it.

“So we’ve seen commodities drift lower, iron ore in particular being that proxy for Chinese economic demand, steel demand.”

Iron ore giants BHP and Rio Tinto ended 1.51 per cent and 1.88 per cent lower, respectively.

Eight of 11 industry sectors declined, led by materials with a 1.91 per cent fall.

Shares in iron ore miners fell on Friday. Picture: Rio Tinto

Financials, telecommunications, staples, health care, industrials, IT, discretionary and materials all ended in the red, while energy, utilities and real estate booked gains.

The ASX 200 fell 2.6 per cent for the week.

The Aussie dollar edged 0.2 per cent lower against the Greenback to buy 0.65 cents at the closing bell.

In corporate news, Tabcorp, Australia’s largest gambling company, tanked 5.23 per cent on news its chief executive Adam Rytenskild had left the business following allegations of inappropriate language.

Shares in the $1.64bn company ended the day at 72 cents.

Lithium miners suffered steep falls, with Pilbara Minerals falling 6.23 per cent and Liontown Resources collapsing 8.42 per cent.

Core Lithium fell 5.26 per cent throughout the day for a weekly slump of 14.29 per cent.

Energy behemoth Woodside Petroleum lifted 2.47 per cent to close at $29.86 a share.

Originally published as Benchmark ASX 200 falls 0.56 per cent on final trading day of the week