Australia and NZ shares slide as US-China trade tension rises
Australian shares fell to one-month lows on Tuesday in response to rising US-China trade tensions
Investors abandoned equities for safe-haven assets, amid worries of US-China trade war escalation. It comes after China announced tariffs on $60 billion of US goods in retaliation, despite Trump warning China not to retaliate to his tariff hike.
The S&P/ASX 200 index was down 77.40 points or 1.2%, at time of writing, while the benchmark fell 0.2% on Monday.
Financial stocks plunged as much as 2.4% to a one-month low, while Australia’s fourth largest lender, National Australia Bank slipped as much as 5.3%. NAB shares traded ex-dividend.
Australia’s "Big Four" banks also fell more than 1%, with Commonwealth Bank of Australia shares losing as much as 2%.
IOOF Holdings Ltd and Magellan Financial Group were down as much as 5.1% and 4%, respectively.
Mining sector
Mining behemoth BHP Group fell as much as 2.1% to hit a 3-month low and Rio Tinto shed 1.7%.
Newcrest Mining, Australia's biggest gold producer, rose 3.8%, while Northern Star Resources advanced 6.2%. St Barbara and Saracen Mineral Holdings also surged.
Gold stocks saw their best intraday percentage gain since October. The gold sub-index surged to its biggest intraday percentage gain in over seven months, as investors scurried to the safe haven metal.
New Zealand
New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index fell 1% or 104.42 points to 10,025.67.
Infratil Ltd lead the falls, dropping as much as 6.1% after it announced the NZ$3.4 billion ($2.24 billion) acquisition of Vodafone New Zealand.
This information has been prepared by IG, a trading name of IG Markets Limited. In addition to the disclaimer below, the material on this page does not contain a record of our trading prices, or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instrument. IG accepts no responsibility for any use that may be made of these comments and for any consequences that result. No representation or warranty is given as to the accuracy or completeness of this information. Consequently any person acting on it does so entirely at their own risk. Any research provided does not have regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation and needs of any specific person who may receive it. It has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such is considered to be a marketing communication. Although we are not specifically constrained from dealing ahead of our recommendations we do not seek to take advantage of them before they are provided to our clients.
Seize a share opportunity today
Go long or short on thousands of international stocks.
- Increase your market exposure with leverage
- Get spreads from just 0.1% on major global shares
- Trade CFDs straight into order books with direct market access
Live prices on most popular markets
- Forex
- Shares
- Indices
