Blue chips battered to multi-year lows

Some of the nation’s biggest corporate names are among those feeling the greatest market fallout.

The pessimism sweeping through global sharemarkets has forced some of the nation’s biggest names to multi-year lows.

In bleak afternoon trade, Australia’s largest company, Commonwealth Bank, was off 0.92 per cent at $70.22, closing narrowly above its three-year trough touched earlier in the session. Instead, the bank saw its lowest closing price since Febuary 29.

Meanwhile, Telstra traded below $5 for the first time in two-and-a-half years as yield stocks fell out of favour with investors warily eyeing a US Federal Reserve that seems intent on raising rates this year. The telco behemoth shed 1.38 per cent to end at $4.99.

The moves are among the lowlights of a session that has slashed more than $34 billion from market valuations.

Among other top 20 names to be feeling the sting are mall operator Westfield and logistics group Brambles, which are tracking at seven-month lows.

Elsewhere, shopping centre owner Scentre is at a five-month trough, while biotech CSL is also at its lowest level since April having briefly dipped below $100 a share in morning deals.

Retailers have largely held up better through recent tumult, although Woolworths has notably given back all of its recent gains in the wake of talk through July and August of the first signs of a turnaround in momentum at its flagship grocery operations.

A 2.32 per cent fall today leaves the company at levels seen before an operating model review was released to the euphoria of traders on July 22.

The retreat follows warnings from several analysts that investors had gone too early in celebrating the fledgling turnaround, with the prospect of a Coles-like recovery seen unlikely given the industry is currently more competitive than at any time in recent memory.