Australia stock market finished session steep lower in post-holiday trading on Tuesday, 11 June 2024, amid investor concerns over this weeks release of key US inflation data and a Federal Reserve announcement on the direction of interest rates, with materials, realty, utilities, energy, telecom, and industrial heavyweights shares leading losses. Australian share market closed for Kings Birthday holiday on Monday.

Investor sentiment turned cautious ahead of critical US economic events, including the May Consumer Price Index (CPI) report and the Federal Reserve’s policy announcement later this week.

At closing bell, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 104.65 points, or 1.33%, to 7,755.38. The broader All Ordinaries index dropped 106.93 points, or 1.93%, to 8,005.89.

Total 10 of 11 sectors ended lower along with the S&P/ASX 200 Index. Consumer Discretionary was the best performing sector, gaining 0.11%, while material sector was bottom performer, falling 2.58%.

The top performing stocks in S&P/ASX200 index were BAPCOR and AUDINATE GROUP, up 14% and 2.61% respectively. The bottom performing stocks in S&P/ASX200 index were EMERALD RESOURCES NL and WEST AFRICAN RESOURCES, down 9.69% and 9.12% respectively.

Shares of materials tumbled as falling iron ore prices weighed on the market heavyweights, with BHP Group down 1.8% and Fortescue Metals Group slipping 3.2%. Rio Tinto shares lost 1.9%. Alumina lost 6.1%

Gold stocks also took a hit, with Evolution Mining plunging 6.5% and Northern Star Resources down 6.2%.

Bapcor shares soared 14% after the embattled car parts retailer confirmed it had received a takeover offer from private equity firm Bain Capital for $5.40 in cash per share. The shares ended the trading session at $4.97.

ECONOMIC NEWS: Australia NAB Business Sentiment Turns Negative In May- Australia business confidence turned negative in May underscoring that the economic activity continued to remain subdued into the second quarter, survey results from NAB showed on Tuesday. The business confidence index dropped to -3 in May from +2 in April. At -6, the forward orders index remained deep in the negative zone. Capex dropped four points to +4, while capacity utilization rose slightly to 83.3%. Capacity utilization remained above average indicating that the process of bringing supply and demand back into balance remains incomplete. Cost and price growth measures re-accelerated in May. Labor cost growth advanced to 2.3% from 1.5% in April and purchase cost growth climbed to 1.9% from 1.3%. Product prices, retail prices and recreation and personal services prices also increased at faster rates in May. The survey suggested that inflation will continue to moderate only gradually from here. The business conditions index slipped slightly to 6 in May from 7 a month ago. Employment rose by three points, while trading conditions and profitability dropped three points each in May.

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First Published: Jun 11 2024 | 1:30 PM IST