PERTH: Australia’s stocks fell heavily for a fourth consecutive session.
The ASX 200 finished Thursday down 1.42% at 5,504.3, taking its four-day decline to 5.15%.
Ominously, the index also closed below its 200-day moving average for the first time since January 22 this year.
Losses were broad-based, with every sector off by 1% or more. The energy and utilities sector, after falling more than 1% on Wednesday, were off more than 1.5% while financials, the largest weighting on the index, fell by an additional 1.4%.
With today’s declines the ASX banks index has now lost more that 17%, bringing the index closer to entering an official bear market.
While markets were softer, there was some good news with shares in Australian technology company Superloop closing up more than 100% on its first day of trading. The company, having issued stock at $1 in its IPO, closed the session at $2.03.
