ASX200 falls sharply after Wall St tech rout in July 25, 2024 trading day

A bloodbath on Wall St engulfed the Australian sharemarket on Thursday, dragging Aussie stocks into a sea of red.

The benchmark ASX200 dived 102.5 points, or 1.29 per cent, to close at 7861.2, while the broader All Ordinaries index tumbled 111.2 points, or 1.36 per cent, to finish at 8094.3.

Tech stocks lost 1.83 per cent to 3068.3.

The slump was widespread, with all 11 industry sectors ending in the red, led by the IT sector with a 2.68 per cent plunge.

Steep declines on Wall St overnight Wednesday triggered the sell-off.

The Dow Jones shed 504 points, or 1.25 per cent, to settle at 39,853 points while the S and P 500 index lost 2.3 per cent to 5427.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq index slumped 3.64 per cent to 17,342 for its worst session since the “tech wreck” of 2022.

“Behind the rapid deterioration in risk sentiment (were) underwhelming earnings reports from tech giants Tesla and Alphabet,” IG markets analyst Tony Sycamore said.

“Tesla investors were unwilling to let the lack of detail around its self-driving vehicle or compression in margins go unpunished, as it closed an eye-popping 12.33 per cent lower at US$215.99.”

And there are additional factors propelling investor despondency in Australia, Mr Sycamore said.

“Regional equity markets are confronting other issues much closer to home, a worrying slowdown in China and the looming threat of Trump’s tariffs, which would cause a sharper slowdown in the Chinese economy,” he said.

“While the freefalling AUD/USD has been the canary in the coal mine this week in terms of recognising the threats posed by the slowdown in China and risk sentiment more broadly, the ASX200 spent the first three days of this week with its head in the sand until today’s wake up call.”

The big miners lost ground on Thursday, led by Fortescue with a sharp 5.53 per cent fall to $20.14 a share.

BHP slipped 0.9 per cent to $41.19, Rio Tinto fell 1.42 per cent to $112.81 and Mineral Resources shed 1.5 per cent to $51.87.

Oil and gas heavyweights Woodside Energy and Santos also fell, losing 1.36 per cent to $26.87 and 3.16 per cent to $7.65, respectively.

Petroleum refiner and retailer Ampol lost 1.81 per cent to $32.50 after reporting a decline in sales volumes for the first half of FY24.

The big banks all dipped lower, led by NAB with a 0.93 per cent decline to $37.24.

Westpac fell 0.67 per cent to $28.34, ANZ lost 0.58 per cent to $29.32 and Commonwealth Bank edged down 0.14 per cent to $132.60.

Investment Bank Macquarie Group tumbled 3.41 per cent fall to $201.61 after reporting a lacklustre update for Q1 2025.

In corporate news, SEEK lost 1.66 per cent to $20.20 after reporting a $141m impairment charge on its investment in Chinese recruitment services company Zhaopin.

SEEK blamed challenges in China’s economic recovery for the writedown.

“In terms of employment markets, blue-collar employment has performed considerably better than the white-collar market in which Zhaopin primarily operates,” the company said.

Mayne Pharma declined 3.54 per cent to $4.36 after announcing a patent lawsuit against Indian company Sun Pharmaceutical.

“This lawsuit reflects Mayne Pharma’s commitment to protecting our intellectual property rights,” CEO Shawn Patrick said.

“As one of the top two specialised women’s healthcare companies in the US, intellectual property is important to our business and we are confident in our ability to vigorously defend the IMVEXXY franchise for the benefit of our patients.”

The top gainer on the ASX200 was metallurgical coal miner Coronado Resources, which leapt 5.2 per cent to $1.31 on a 24 per cent bump in June quarter ROM production to 7.4Mt.

The largest laggard was gold miner Regis Resources, which dived 9.7 per cent to $1.72.

The Aussie dollar lost 0.61 per cent to buy US65.4c at the closing bell.