PERTH: The Australian sharemarket dived as banking stocks tumbled in the wake of ANZ’s capital raising while trading was also soured by resource shares after a major writedown from explosives and blasting systems firm Orica.
At the 4.15pm (AEST) official market close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 was 135.3 points, or 2.41 per cent, lower at 5474.8, while the broader All Ordinaries index had fallen 127.8 points, or 2.28 per cent, to 5472.3.
The result put the ASX200 at about 3.7 below last Friday’s close of 5699.2, more than offsetting last week’s gains of 2.4 per cent.
The market fell initially on weaker banking stocks as ANZ slumped sharply. The lender emerged from a trading halt this morning after announcing a $3 billion capital raising yesterday.
The bourse was hit again by Orica’s trading update, which saw it announce plans to write down as much as $1.65bn worth of assets amid an “extremely challenging” operating environment as the mining boom fades.
Rio Tinto was initially up on an above-consensus profit result yesterday, but ended the day in the red, while BHP Billiton fared worse.
“Orica’s downgrade pretty much brought down resources with it,” Lonsec general manager of equities research Bill Keenan said.
