ASX 200 market wrap: Everything that happened on Wednesday, March 10

ASX 200 wrap

It seems that the bullish enthusiasm from the US session overnight was lost in translation by Australia’s market close on Wednesday, 10 March 2021.

Key moves from the Wednesday session

Despite opening higher, the Aussie benchmark would finish out the day in the red. The ASX 200 opened at 6,771 points and rallied to an intraday high of 6,806 points within the first 30 minutes of trade.

That strong start soon reversed and the market edged lower as the session wore on, with the ASX 200 closing the day at 6,741 points, down 0.84%.

By comparison the All Ords finished out Wednesday down 53.2 points or 0.76%, at the 6,947 point level.

Broad market weaknesses didn’t phase local tech investors. The All Technology Index – which is made up of some of Australia’s most important technology stocks – ended out the session up 2.49% or 64 points, at the 2,636 point level.

Indeed, while Tuesday was a horror day for ASX info tech stocks, as the above illustrates, Wednesday saw that trend reverse sharply. Moreover, of the five sectors that posted positive gains during the day, the information technology sector index led the way, up 3.16%. Rounding out these positive sector performances, we see:

• Industrials +0.92%,
• Health Care +0.58%
• Discretionary +0.33%
• Utilities +0.02%

On the other side, six ASX sectors traded lower on Wednesday. Here we see:

• Telecommunication -0.09%
• Staples -0.26%
• Real Estate -1.05%
• Financials -1.25%
• Materials -2.51%
• Energy -2.98%

Best and worst performing ASX stocks

During Wednesday’s session the best performing ASX equities were Hansen Technologies +24.34%, West African Resources +12.18% and Ramelius Resources +9.79%.

By comparison, the worst performing equities were Bionomics -16.13%, Western Areas -13.25% and large-cap iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group -8.34%.

Other bits and pieces

Rounding out the key asset moves from Wednesday, at the time of writing:

• Gold traded up 0.12% to AUD$2,230 per ounce
• Both WTI and Brent oil were slightly lower at US$63.49 a barrel and US$66.88 a barrel, respectively
• Iron ore was down 2.96% to US$168 per tonne
• The Aussie dollar (AUD/USD) traded at $0.767

IG market analyst insight

Commenting on these market moves, IG Market Analyst Kyle Rodda said ‘the day for the ASX200 has been defined by the pause in the reflation trade.’

‘The index has shed -0.6 per cent, largely to due to a sell-off in the heavily weighted sectors of the market. A drop in Australian Government bond yields – due to the combined effects of the drop in US yields last night, as well as some push back from RBA Governor Lowe in a speech this morning on removing policy support – weighed on the financial stocks,’ Mr Rodda finished.

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