The sharemarket is set for its biggest loss in four weeks, driven lower by banks and energy stocks after Westpac earnings missed forecasts and the price of oil plunged.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index was down 0.7 per cent, or 56.6 points, to 8181.4, as eight of the 11 sectors traded lower. That puts the bourse on track for its largest one-day fall since April 11. The All Ordinaries also fell 0.7 per cent.
A worse-than-expected earnings report by Westpac sparked a sell-off in the big banks. Westpac dropped 2.6 per cent after interim profit missed expectations, while some investors cast doubt on its plan to double down on business and institutional loan growth.
The result prompted selling across the sector in a big week of half-year earnings. Commonwealth Bank dropped 1.8 per cent, and National Australia Bank slid 1.9 per cent.
’Westpac was the first cab off the rank in the sector. And the result showed that for the banks, things are still reasonably tough out there,” Sequoia senior wealth adviser Patrick Trindade said.
Energy stocks also weighed on the bourse, tracking a 3.9 per cent drop in the price of Brent oil to below $US60 a barrel after OPEC+ announced a dramatic escalation in output. Oil and gas giants Woodside and Santos dropped 3.5 per cent and 3.7 per cent, respectively. Qantas rose 2.4 per cent as investors expected a more pronounced decline in oil prices to push down the airline’s price of fuel.
Those losses and a fall in US futures cast a risk-off mood across the market as consumer and real estate stocks reversed some earlier strength. Trump claimed on Sunday that tariffs on China would come down “at some point”, but later clarified that he had no plans to speak to Beijing this week.
In currencies, the Australian dollar touched a year-to-date high of US64.81¢ as the greenback weakened and China’s offshore yuan soared to a six-month record.
Stocks on the move
In corporate news, Gold Road Resources leapt 9.6 per cent after announcing it had succumbed to the advances of South Africa’s Gold Fields following the latter sweetening its takeover offer to $3.7 billion.
Investors took heart from Endeavour’s forecast for “flat to modest” retail sales growth over the remainder of the fourth quarter. The shares advanced 1.7 per cent.
Smartpay soared 22.4 per cent on Monday after the company, which is part of the All Ordinaries index, entered exclusive talks with an unnamed suitor proposing to acquire it for $NZ1.20 ($1.12) a share. That excluded rival Tyro Payments from the negotiating table, though shares in the payments provider were up 9 per cent.
Reliance Worldwide retreated 2.2 per cent after reporting that it expected US tariffs to erase $US25 million ($38.7 million) to $US35 million from its full-year earnings in 2026.
