Local stocks fell on Friday on Wall Street’s decline and heavy selling in mining stocks.
The benchmark ASX200 index fell 64.9 points, or 0.81 per cent, to close at 7,971, while the broader All Ordinaries index fell 63.5 points, or 0.77 per cent, to close at 8,209.2.
Technology stocks fell 0.24 percent to 3,098.2 points.
The decline was broad-based, with 10 of the 11 industrial sectors ending the day in the red, led by the materials sector, which fell 1.71 percent.
Weaker-than-expected Chinese economic data sent iron ore futures lower and triggered a selloff in large-cap mining stocks.
BHP shares fell 2.1 percent to $41.76, Rio Tinto shares fell 1.7 percent to $113.99 and Fortescue shares lost 1.91 percent to $21.62.
Coal mining companies that produce coal for steel production fell sharply, with Whitehaven Coal down 1.3 percent to $8.32 and Stanmore Resources losing 2.07 percent to $3.78.
Friday’s broad collapse was also driven by a gloomy session on Wall Street overnight on Thursday.
The Dow Jones lost 533 points, or 1.3 percent, to close at 40,665, while the S&P 500 fell 0.78 percent to close at 5,544.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq fell 0.7 percent to 17,871 points.
“I think what happened today was in large part a reaction to what was happening on Wall Street,” said David Passanisi, chief economist at Bitshares.
“The markets saw some profit taking, but the performance was good.”
There were some concerns about what Donald Trump might say in his acceptance speech today.
“They (the Republican Party) seem to be anti-Big Tech, or certainly their vice presidential nominee was anti-Big Tech.
“So there are growing concerns that they may be a little bit more negative towards large-cap tech companies.
“It’s a new story emerging in technology, along with the possibility of trade wars with China.”
Energy stocks were hit by lower oil prices, with oil and gas giant Woodside Energy down 1.05 percent to $29.21 and oil refiner and retailer Ampol down 1 percent to $33.39.
Santos shares rose 0.25 percent to $8.02.
All the major banks fell, with NAB leading the pack with a 1.19 per cent drop to $37.24.
Commonwealth Bank shares fell 0.78 per cent to $131.63, Westpac lost 0.91 per cent to $28.22 and ANZ lost 1.16 per cent to $29.71.
With Friday’s negative session, the benchmark index posted a 0.15 percent gain over the week, its third week of gains.
In corporate news, a global outage of Microsoft’s network hit the Australian economy late Friday afternoon, bringing down IT systems at several major companies including Qantas and Woolworths.
Shares of online beauty retailer Adore Beauty jumped 5.2 percent to 91 cents after posting positive FY24 numbers.
The company reported full-year revenue of $195.7 million, up 7.4 percent from fiscal 2023, and a 1.6 percent increase in “active customers” to 814,000.
Flight Center shares rose 2.12 percent to $22.66 after UBS analysts raised their price target to $27.80.
The biggest gainer on the ASX200 was utility company Mercury NZ, which jumped 4.9 per cent to $6.41.
Yancol was the worst performer, down 4 percent to $6.71.
The Australian dollar settled at 67 US cents at the close.
