ASX/200 slumps to two day amid lockdown jitters

Australia’s share market has hit a two day low amid lockdown jitters from a growing coronavirus cluster in Sydney.

Australian shares hit a two-day low amid fears Sydney is heading for a snap lockdown following more new Covid-19 cases linked to the eastern suburbs cluster.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index fell 23 points, or 0.3 per cent to 7275.3, making it the second consecutive day of ending in the red.

Banks weighed on investor sentiment while major miners were able to make some headway.

The All Ordinaries finished 13 points, or 0.2 per cent lower to an index position of 7539.1, while the Australian dollar was fetching 75.75 US cents and gold was garnering a spot price of $US1777.96 an ounce at the close of local session.

The two-day fall comes after a mixed session on Wall Street, where the Dow ended 0.2 per cent lower and the S&P 500 recorded a 0.1 per cent falls while the Nasdaq climbed 1 per cent higher.

Australian shares hit a two day low. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

“Financial stocks have led the market lower today again and have continued to pull back from recent highs,” Openmarkets chief executive Ivan Tchourilov said.

“They’re still trading near pre-Covid highs and are all showing strong capital gains for FY21, so a bit of profit-taking towards the end of the financial year isn’t surprising.”

Tech stocks shone the brightest with Redbubble claiming top spot and closing 7.1 per cent higher to $3.47.

Afterpay soared 6.2 per cent to $130.5 after it launched new virtual cards to assist payments at more retailers in the US, while online retailer Kogan jumped 5.9 per cent to $11.50.

Woolworths ended 4.5 per cent higher to $37.75 despite incurring heavy declines earlier in the trade following its spin-off of drinks business Endeavour Group.

Afterpay was one of the better performers on Thursday’s trading day. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

“This is Woolies $12bn drinks business which is behind Dan Murphys and BWS, and Woolies decided to split from this organisation so it can better focus on its core supermarket operations,” CommSec analyst Steven Daghlian said in a market update.

“Now Woolies will own a 14.5 per cent stake in the group and eligible shareholders will automatically receive one Endeavour share for each Woolies share that they currently own.”

Endeavour on its first day of trade debuted at $6.60 a share.

Nuix dived 1.9 per cent to $2.56 after the Australian Federal Police raided its head offices in Sydney in relation to a criminal investigation.

Transurban announced it would pay an interim dividend of 21.5 cents a share and it fell 0.7 per cent to $14.51.

Westpac confirmed it would not scrap its New Zealand division, however it closed 1 per cent lower to $25.83.

Woolworths initiated its spin of its drinks business Endeavour Group. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Commonwealth Bank closed 0.6 per cent lower to $98.65, while ANZ dropped 0.8 per cent to $28.04 and NAB fell 1.9 per cent to $26.09.

Qantas fell 1.9 per cent to $4.63 following Sydney’s virus fears which has seen state border and travel restrictions imposed on the major city.

Mining giant Rio Tinto rose 1.2 per cent to $124.36, while its rival BHP jumped 0.9 per cent to $47.60 and Fortescue Metals increased 1.2 per cent to $22.74.

Boral was in the bottom five worst performers on the ASX 200 and shed 3.6 per cent to $6.90

Former Coca-Cola Amatil managing director Alison Watkins joined the Wesfarmers board, however its shares took a tumble and ended the session down 0.7 per cent to $57.70.

Charter Hall dipped 3.1 per cent to $15.23.