‘Almost all sectors in the red’: ASX falls in broad market sell-off

The ASX 200 has traded down following weak investor sentiment and a key piece of US data coming out overnight.

The Australian sharemarket closed the week lower, as investors factored in a weaker economic outlook.

The benchmark S & P/ASX 200 fell 0.6 per cent, or 54 points to 8420.9 at the closing bell, with 10 out of the 11 sectors in red. The Index lost 0.2 per cent on a weekly basis. It scaled a fresh highest of 8514.5 on Tuesday.

The only sector trading higher was the utilities sector trading higher.

The broader All Ordinaries fell by 55.20 points, or 0.63 per cent to close the week out at 8689.30 points.

The ASX falls in a broad market sell-off. Picture: NewsWire / Max Mason-Hubers

The Australian dollar fell 0.4 per cent to 64.27 US cents.

AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said sentiment on the Australian market had fallen since Wednesday’s weak GDP figures were released.

“I suspect having hit a record high on Tuesday, there has been some profit taking throughout the week which wasn’t helped by the GDP falls and all the gloom around the economy,” Dr Oliver said.

“The market has been anticipating stronger profit growth ahead, after profits fell last year. The GDP numbers questioned that to some degree.”

Australia’s market followed a weak lead in from Wall Street with the S & P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq down 0.2 per cent each, while the more concentrated Dow Jones fell 0.6 per cent.

Dr Oliver said this followed important figures being released overnight which could determine if the US gets another rate cut.

“The other problem is there is some nervousness around the non-farm payroll figures out of the US, as markets are hanging out for another rate cut in December,” he said.

Dr Oliver said financials trading down had the biggest impact on the ASX during Friday’s trading.

Westpac led the falls down 1.44 per cent, while CBA fell 0.59 per cent on the bell. NAB traded down 0.36 per cent while ANZ traded flat for the session

Elsewhere there was weakness in the consumer discretionary shares, with former market darling ZIP down 7.37 per cent, even with UBS releasing a positive broker note on the shares.

The Domino’s share price is down 4 per cent to $31.93, following Macquarie downgraded the outlook for its share price.

Only utilities stocks rose on Friday. NewsWire / Max Mason-Hubers

According to the note, the broker has downgraded the pizza chain operator’s shares to an underperform rating from neutral and cut the price target on them to $29.50.

Macquarie has concerns about store openings due to pressures on franchisee profits. It fears this could lead to below consensus earnings in the medium term.

“Utilities are a defensive part of the market so it is not surprising a key defensive sector rose on a day that is pretty negative across the board,” Dr Oliver said.

“I would put the strength in utilities down so they can outperform in periods as a whole when the markets fall.”

Dr Oliver said the other defensive parts of the market including healthcare and telecommunications traded down.

Originally published as ‘Almost all sectors in the red’: ASX falls in broad market sell-off