Australian shares give up gains

“There was nowhere to hide, with every major sector losing ground,” said Chris Conway, Head of Research at the Australian Stock Report.

Financials were the epicentre of the selloff, with the big four continuing to be punished; National Australia Bank (NAB) and Westpac (WBC) were the hardest hit, losing 1.6% and 1.4% respectively. Macquarie Group (MQG) lost 1.5%.

Consumer staples and telcos were also hit hard, with the sectors led lower by poor performances from Wesfarmers (WES) and Telstra (TLS) which fell 1.4% and 1.1% respectively.

On the other hand, among the best performing stocks, APN Outdoor (APO) added 4.6%, followed by Macquarie Atlas Roads (MQA), whilst at the other end of the spectrum, Mantra Group (MTR) was the worst performer, down 7.7%, after being downgraded by a major broker. 

On the day the ASX 200 slumped 54 points (-1%) to settle at 5228.

The SPI failed to recover in the afternoon session, with the index languishing near the session lows around 5180.

It was a broad based and fairly brutal selloff today, following on from yesterday's unexpected gains.

According to Conway, “Given the selloff, the bias for the SPI now shifts back to neutral.”

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