The Australian sharemarket has fallen despite Wall Street rallying on expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its policy meeting next week.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index had dropped 57.5 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 8792.1 as of midday AEST, with seven out of 11 sectors in the red, headlined by energy stocks and the big four banks.
The continued slide in energy stocks followed OPEC+’s weekend decision to increase production by 137,000 barrels per day starting in October.
Woodside dipped 1 per cent on Tuesday following a nearly 3 per cent drop the day before, while Viva fell 1.9 per cent, Beach Energy 1.1 per cent and Santos 0.5 per cent.
Index heavyweight Commonwealth Bank dipped 1.1 per cent. National Australia Bank was flat, but Westpac fell 1.1 per cent after Morgan Stanley lowered its share price target and labelled it the “least preferred” major bank. ANZ fell 0.6 per cent after announcing it would cut 3500 jobs.
“As a sector, the banks aren’t growing,” said Schroders deputy head of Australian equities Andrew Fleming. “It’s a very low growth market where you’re seeing very high multiples.”
Stocks on the move
Telix Pharmaceuticals jumped 4.3 per cent on news it reached an agreement with the US Food and Drug Administration to resubmit its application for approval for its brain cancer imaging agent with more clinical evidence.
BHP came off 0.7 per cent after announcing it had settled a class action with Australian investors who bought shares in the company ahead of the Fundao dam failure for $110 million.
Life360 continued its meteoric rise, gaining another 3.4 per cent, to be up more than 170 per cent in the past 12 months.