There was a sea of red on the Australian sharemarket on Thursday as a spike in oil prices and stronger than expected jobs figures hammered investors confidence.<\/p>\n
The benchmark ASX 200 plunged 142.80 points or 1.65 per cent to 8497.80 while the broader All Ordinaries collapsed 157 points or 1.77 per cent to 8690.70.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s benchmark index fell a further $50bn on Thursday and has now sunk more than $250bn since the conflict between the US\/Israel and Iran, Australia\u2019s benchmark has sold off more than $250bn. <\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s dollar appreciated 0.11 per cent against the greenback to buy 70.35 US cents.<\/p>\n
On a weak day of trading, eight of the 11 sectors finished in the red.<\/p>\n
Leading the falls was mining stocks which collectively slumped 4.83 per cent on higher fuel prices. <\/p>\n
BHP shares slumped 3.47 per cent to $48.35, Rio Tinto dragged 3.22 per cent to $151.35 and Fortescue Metals fell 3.35 per cent to $19.04. <\/p>\n
Technology shares also dropped down 2.97 per cent in the market bloodbath.<\/p>\n
WiseTech shares plunged 7.02 per cent to $41.47, Xero shares dropped 3.04 per cent to $76.98 and NextDC shares gave back 2.41 per cent to $13.38. <\/p>\n
The further chaos from both sides of the US\/Israel and Iran sides of the conflict led to the price of oil surging again to over $US110 ($A156) a barrel.<\/p>\n
IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said rising oil prices over the last week finally caught up to the ASX.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe eerie calm that held over the ASX200 earlier this week has been shattered today, with the index plunging 142.80 points to a ten-day low of 8497.80, with no bounce to be seen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe damaging sell-off was primarily driven by heavy falls on Wall Street, which came on the heels of a significant escalation in the Middle East conflict. <\/p>\n
\u201cTit-for-tat strikes targeted critical Gulf infrastructure, including an Israeli air strike on Iran\u2019s South Pars gas field and Iran\u2019s retaliatory hit on Qatar\u2019s Ras Laffan LNG plant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Energy prices surged on rising fuel costs up 5.08 per cent as a sector to be one of the bright spots on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Woodside Energy rallied 7.19 per cent to $33.708, Santos jumped 3.22 per cent to $8.02 and Ampol climbed 4.60 per cent to $32.97. <\/p>\n
Also weighing on the market was mixed employment data.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s unemployment rate has risen to 4.3 per cent in February from 4.1 per cent the month before.<\/p>\n
But this was largely due to the participation rate rising, with 48,000 Australians finding work, predominantly in part-time roles.<\/p>\n
EY senior economist Paula Gadsby says the relatively tight labour market gives the RBA a green light to raise rates again in May. <\/p>\n
\u201cRobust labour market conditions and low unemployment, especially compared to other advanced nations, give the Reserve Bank room to battle inflation,\u201d she said<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it will be a fine line to walk in preserving the gains in the labour market from here as growth conditions get tougher, while also ensuring high inflation does not become entrenched.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shares in Ora Banda Miners was the biggest laggard down 14.09 per cent to $1.28, while Viva Energy was the biggest gainer soaring 15.15 per cent to $2.43. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was a sea of red on the Australian sharemarket on Thursday as a spike in oil prices…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2324,1724,64,63,689,212960,44779,272334,99,115815,164,3132,60635,272321,272331,272320,272322,272327,5575,6897,42086,34096,272326,272336,272319,32829,12241,272328,272325,3354,115817,677,26473,272324,272323,270290,272333,16776,272330,272329,272335,12540,272332,225274,165,12000],"class_list":["post-550357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-anthony-albanese","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-sharemarket","tag-benchmark-index","tag-bhp-shares","tag-business","tag-cameron-micallef","tag-economy","tag-employment-data","tag-energy-prices","tag-expected-jobs-figures","tag-finding-work","tag-gas-facility","tag-hile-energy-stocks","tag-investors-confidence","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-jim-chalmers","tag-labour-market","tag-labour-market-conditions","tag-market-analyst","tag-market-bloodbath","tag-market-wrap","tag-middle-east","tag-mining-giants","tag-mining-stocks","tag-news-headlines","tag-newswire-business","tag-oceania","tag-oil-prices","tag-participation-rate-rising","tag-paula-gadsby","tag-picture-newswire","tag-pushes-oil","tag-reserve-bank","tag-rio-tinto-limited-ampamp-plc","tag-rising-oil-prices","tag-robust-labour-market","tag-southern-asia","tag-technology-shares","tag-tony-sycamore","tag-unemployment-rate","tag-western-asia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}